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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Bhelf-Slk...- 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




IXTACCIIIUATL*-) 



■■■ Pronounced : Is-sta-sea-watile. 





-HK White Woman. 



THE KINGDOM OF THE 
"WHITE WOMAN" 



A SKETCH 



•'^;^t,^'-^^t^^-%^^Cti-<^-'^'^'-''^^ 



CINCINNATI 
ROBERT CLARK?: & CO 

1S94 




Copyright, 1894, 
By M M. shoemaker. 






cr 



PREFACE. 

These notes are the record of a winter in Mexico, 
at a time when the first waves of a second and greater 
conquest were beginning to break on her shores. 
When we in the North were awakening to the fact 
that just to the southward slept in an enchanted king- 
dom, not one maiden but a whole nation, and that 
the time had come to awaken them from a sleep of 
300 years — so we turned our faces southward, not in 
battle array, not in glittering hosts, and carrying 
neither cross nor crescent, but in small groups at first, 
who, as we entered the kingdom, felt that the place 
was haunted, and stole wonderingly on in silence. 
Then more and more followed, pushing wider and 
wider the long-forgotten portals, until now through each 
and all rolls a "flood tide"" that in the name of peace 
and progress will rush onward until its mighty waters 
will submerge the sea of Mexico into the ocean of 

a "greater America." 

(3) 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. page 
Singers and Sharks 9 

Chapter II. 
" Off the Coast of Yucatan " 13 

Chapter III. 
Riding Out a "Norther" 17 

Chapter IV. 
The Mexican " Bastile " 21 

Chapter V. 
The Citv of the " True Cross " 23 

Chapter VI. 
Our First View of the Descendants of Montezuma 2q 

Chapter VII. 
An Introduction to the " Danza " 31 

Chapter VIII. 
From tlie "Hot Sands" to the "Table Lands" 35 

Chapter IX. 
Staging through the Land of Brigandage 38 

Chapter X. 
The Great L^pper Table Land 43 



6 Coiitoib 



ClIAI'TKR XI. 

Daiing Robbers and Delicious Fruits 46 

Chapter XII. 
The Making of Pulque 49 

Chapter XIII. 
Pueblo de los Angelos and the Legend of the " White 

Woman " 153 

Chapter XIV. 
Storms on the Pyramid of Cholula 59 

Chapter XV. 
Entrance to the Capital 62 

Chapter X\'I. 
A Deserted Palace 66 

Chapter X\'II. 
Life in the City of Montezuma 70 

Chapter XVIII. 
The Panorama of the Valley 75 

Chapter XIX. 
High Life and Dog Life Si 

Chapter XX. 
Thieving and Religion go Hand in Hand 83 j^^ 

Ch.vpter XXI. 
The Climate and People 91 

Chapter XXII. 
The Gilded Coach and the Tree of the "Bloody Hand". 95 



Contents. 7 



Chapter XXIII. 
The Grand Avenue to Chapultepec 99 

Chapter XX I \'. 
Ghosts on the "Hill of the Grasshopper" loS 

Chapter XXW 
" Mr. Guppj '" amongst the Aztecs 113 

Chapter XXVI. 
The Tomb of Juarez 117 

Chapter XX\'II. 
Bloodhounds as Guardians i:;o 

Chapter XX\'III. 
Reception at the Legation 132 

Chapter XX IX. 
Maximilian 134 

Ch.vpter XXX. 
"Crazy Joan " 13S 

Chapter XXXI. 
Feather Work of the Aztecs 141 

Chapter XXXIl. 
Mrs. Hooper's Orphanage 144 

Chapter XXXIII. 
Dead— "Only a Girl" 148 )/' 

Chapter XXXIV. 
Burial of the Poor in Havana 154 



8 Contents. 

ClIM'TF.R XXW. 

Tlie Tribes, of the Past 156 

ClIAl'TER \X\\'I. 

Cortez and the Inquisition 160 

ClIAPTKR XXW'II. 

The Ways In and Out 164 

Chapter XXX VII I. 
A Picnic in Tivoli Gardens 168 

Chapter XXXIX. 
En Route Northward 171 

Chapter XL. 
Beggars b}' the Way 174 

Chapter XLI. 
Pilgrims to the Virgin's Shrine 177 

Chapter XLII. 
The Tomb of Torquemada 189 

Chapter XLII I. 
America versus Mexico 197 

Chapter XLI\'. 
Ancient Juarez 200 

Chapter XLV. 
' Adios " J03 



THE 

KINGDOM OF THE " WHITE WOMAN." 



CHAPTER L 

On board the S. S. "City of Vera Cruz." In roadstead 
off the port of Pergresso, Yucatan; the season, midwinter. 

A TROPICAL sun sends its rays down- 
ward so strong and so direct that 
an awning is necessary, and one's dispo- 
sition to do any thing is at its lowest ebb. 
Around about us are scattered the members 
of a French opera troupe, en route to charm 
the inhabitants of the one-time kingdom of 
Montezuma. Here is the prima donna, tall 
and stately, with glorious dark eyes. She 
seems really a lady. The rest are, to say 
the least, an odd lot. We have been 

(9) 



lo The Kingdom of the 

almost a week on board with them, and 
have not as yet been able to establish the 
different relationships. However, we proba- 
bly know as much about it as they do 
themselves, and it is needless to say, do 
not tell all we know. Here comes the con- 
tralto, a big, heavy woman, who evidently 
believes that variety is life's spice, as one 
never sees her with the same man twice, 
except it be that cadaverous priest, with 
whom she is now walking and whom she 
persists in tormenting. The poor man tries 
to ignore her and bury his nose in his 
breviary, but she is not of the sort to be 
ignored. As they cross that patch of sun- 
light near the funnel, I see her give his old 
greasy soutane such a jerk that his breviary 
nearly flies into the sea, and he crosses 
himself devoutly. Now she snatches his 
arm, and church and opera pass around 
the ship in stately procession, much to the 



''White Woman y ii 

amusement of the latter, as well as the 
rest of us. 

Our attention is suddenly diverted from 
the life of the ship to the life of the 
ocean that spreads around us in oily waves. 
Those engaged in the business of shark 
fishing find that they have succeeded at 
last, and are tugging hand over hand, en- 
deavoring to handle their prize. Leaning 
over the rail, I recoil with a shudder as I 
find myself looking straight down the throat 
of one of those monsters of the deep — a 
mouth nearly half a yard across holds row 
after row of savaoe lookincr teeth, back 
of which cold, cruel, and most malignant 
looking eyes stare straight into mine. To 
my mind Nature holds nothing so horri- 
bly cruel in expression as the eye of a 
shark. This is a monster some fourteen 
feet longf. The men have almost g-otten 
him over on the deck when the chain parts 



1 2 The Kingdom of the 

and he vanishes, carrying as a memento 
of his curiosity an iron hook in his jaws 
about a foot lono-. It will soon turn him 
into food for the hundreds of others that 
fill the sea around us. It really would seem 
to be a fact they do not attack negroes. 
At least here, where we see that the waters 
abound with the monsters, the blacks do 
not hesitate to plunge in, appearing to be 
utterly devoid of fear. Just over yonder, 
man and monster actually appear to be 
engageci in a game of water polo. 



' ' White Woman . " 13 



CHAPTER ir. 

WE have been anchored for two days 
off this port of Merida waitino- for 
the winds and waves to subside. These 
steamships being subsidized by the Mexican 
government to carry the mails, do not 
dare leave without them, so we roll at 
anchor for forty-eight hours waiting the 
pleasure of that apparently dead town. 
The sun shines from a cloudless sky, but 
the wind and waves keep up a dolorous 
moaning. Captain Van Sice (poor man, 
he went down with this same ship some 
two years later) says that it is the "tail 
of a norther" and will end soon. It 
does so {after tzvo days), then the natives 
come off in clumsy lighters and in a few 



14 The Kingdom of tJie 

hours we are again under full steam west- 
ward. Frontrara is passed in like manner, 
and to-morrow should find us landed at 
Vera Cruz. To-night the ocean sleeps 
peacefully and the moon will rise toward 
eleven o'clock (over quiet waters). We 
have gathered on deck to hear the opera 
troupe rehearse " Mignon," and when they 
finish the purser produces his accordion 
and we assist him in returning the com- 
pliment. It is needless to say that "The 
Blue Bahamas," and one or two other 
familiar airs are rendered more or less 
perfectly. Rarely have we heard an ac- 
cordion played so well. There is music 
in it as he swings it around his head — 
music so inspiring that French, English, 
and Americans, officers and crew, are soon 
tripping the light fantastic, with the ex- 
ception of the priest who has locked 



'^ White Woman.'' 15 

himself in his state-room to escape the 
embraces of the contraho. Heavens ! he 
lauofhs best who laughs last. Havino- 

o o fc» 

missed the holy father, she insists upon 
dancing with me. What a waltz it is ! 
I have had many dances in many climes 
but never any thing equal to this. Re- 
leased at last I lean panting against the 
wheel-house, and gaze eastward to where 
the reddening of the sky tells of the com- 
ing moon. The waters of the gulf spread 
darkly around us like a vast black mirror, 
over which the queen of night casts a long 
river of light, and which ever and anon 
heaves slowly as though the giant spirit of 
the ocean were deep in slumber — but the 
coming of the moon disturbs him. The 
waters are deeply troubled, and rise and 
fall uneasily in swirls and whirlpools. Now 
the wind begins its moaning, grows stronger 



1 6 The Kijigdoni of the 

and stronger, swifter and swifter, until it 
howls throuoh the riesino: like mad. In 
less than twenty minutes the norther is 
upon us, and all night long we pitch and 
toss upon a tempestuous ocean. 



' ' White Woman . " 17 



CHAPTER III. 

GOOD FRIDAY, 1879. 

THE hours of the night are filled with 
the sound of moaning winds and dash- 
ing waves. Morning brings us no comfort. 
I find on reaching the deck that the storm 
still rages and every thing is shrouded in 
mist. We are at anchor between the castle 
of San Juan d' Ulloa and the city of the 
True Cross, so they say, but we seem to 
be anchored in cloudland. 

Suddenly the mist separates, and through 
the rift, against the blue sky, comes the first 
glimpse of the peak of Orizaba,* a perfect 
cone of snow, sparkling twenty thousand 
feet above us. The rift grows wider as 

*" Mountain of the Star." 



1 8 The Kingdovi of the 

the rising sun sends more power into its 
rays. Shortly there appear the gray rocks ; 
then the Hght green tops of the higher 
mountain trees, followed by the dark, glis- 
tening foliage of the tropics on the lower 
hills; then, as with a last effort, the mist 
is banished completely, like the falling of 
a curtain, the entire panorama spreads 
before us. Long dunes stretch from the 
base of the mountains in waves of sand, 
until they seem about to overwhelm the 
sleeping city of Vera Cruz, lying over there 
all pink and green and white in the early 
sunlight. Silence most intense, save for 
the sound of the dancingr waters of the 
o^ulf, reigriis over all. The view is most 
beautiful, yet it is intensely melancholy, 
for all is so white and hot and desolate, 
while the moaning of the wind seems with 
the waves to be chanting a solemn requiem 
over this city of the True Cross, — this spot 



<: 




" White Woman y 19 

where Cortez first set foot in the ancient 
kingdom of Montezuma. 

There is no harbor here nor anywhere 
else on this coast, only an open roadstead, 
on one side of which rises the fortress of 
San Juan d' Ulloa, while on the other 
stretches the low-lying Terra Caliente, with 
the city of Vera Cruz encircled by its per- 
fect .walls in the middle foreground. The 
houses are truly Spanish with their flat 
roofs and gayly-colored walls. Up one 
street we catch a glimpse of the plaza and 
cathedral, around which, the only signs of 
life are the vultures. To the very gates 
of the city the sand has blown in great 
hills, and we do not see what is to prevent 
a fate like that of Pompeii overwhelming 
all. 

It is hard work enjoying all this when 



20 The Kmgdoin of the 

we are forced to clincr to the railingf and 
rigging, the ship rocking constantly beneath 
us, while the wind never ceases. A howling 
storm, with clouds and darkness, thunder 
and lightning, has something awe inspiring 
about it, but to me nothing is more lonely 
than a brilliant sunny day, with the wind 
blowing steadily and moaning as only such 
winds can moan ; and when is added to 
this a silent fortress, a sleeping or appar- 
ently deserted city, over which great clouds 
of sand are drifting, and beyond which the 
desert stretches away to the mountains — 
one has reached the acme of desolation. 
Nature would be lonely here under all 
circumstances, but she is never at any time 
or place desolate, unless man has left his 
track across her face, and when these tracks 
are in the form of a 'city and fortress, whose 
life and usefulness are long over past, the 
desolation is intense. 



White Woman y 21 



CHAPTER IV. 

SAX JUAX d' ULLOA, 

'•* ^ I ^WENTY years in the dungeons of 

i- San Juan d' Ulloa." Such was the 
sentence pronounced not long since upon 
a murderer in northern Mexico. Twenty 
years ! He will not live three. The dun- 
geons of this old fortress are in the solid 
rock, much lower than the waters of the 
ocean, whose risino- tides drive the rats and 

o 

vermin in upon those buried alive there. 
Ooze and slime trickle down walls that are 
foul with disease. Yellow fever and small- 
pox are forever rampant. Escape from the 
fortress is impossible. You are literally 
"between the devil and the deep sea." The 
former in the shape of the pestilence, and 



2 2 The Kingdom of the 

the latter in the great depths of the water 
and the myriads of sharks ; — so abandon your 
hopes if once you enter this castle of San 
Juan d' UUoa. Russia holds no prison more 
terrible. As we stand on our deck reg-ard- 
ing its storm-washed walls we are startled 
by a wailing cry and the sight of two poor 
white hands extended toward us from one 
of the iron-barred casemates, behind which 
a half-starved face looks out imploringly. 
It is too much, and we rush across the 
deck, down the companion-way, and into 
the first boat that is to venture shoreward, 
leaving San Juan d' Ulloa to her silence 
and her waves. 



White Woman y 



CHAPTER V. 

VERA CRUZ. 

AS the landing- is dangerous we decide 
to drift for half an hour, when finally 
it appears safe to venture. Even then 
"Madam," the contralto, gets soaked by a 
high breaker just as she makes a rush for 
the portal, and the last we see of her she is 
vanishing down a long street in any thing 
but a good humor, while she carries her 
pet parrot by the tail. With it all, she was 
a jolly soul, and whether she meets priest 
or pagan will go singing through life's 
pathway. Sunshine be with her, for she 
has afforded us many a hearty laugh. 

Are these black-robed priests, with 
shovel-shaped hats, who advance to meet 



24 The Kingdom of the 

us, from the Barber of Seville, or is that 
biof-noscd one a demon from Hendrick 
Httdson" s ereiu ? They bow their heads in 
solemn silence, as though they were one 
or both, and the one of the big nose offers 
us a drink of somethinQ^ white and ill- 
smelling. We know it is only pulque, 
but they seem to watch us with a sinister 
sidelong glance, wondering whether we will 
drink. If we did would we hear the ghostly 
*' ha, ha," "ha, ha," as we sink into 
slumber, like those silent figures down that 
long quiet street yonder ? Each and all of 
us decline to try the experiment, and 
moving onward enter the portals of this 
first city of the Conquest. 



" White Woman y 25 



CHAPTER VI. 

''TS this all you have for dinner ? " "Si, 
JL Senor." " Then serve it over aeain." 
The waiter stares for a moment and, de- 
parting, soon returns with the first course 
of the dinner which we have already tried 
and found wanting in quantity, hence our 
party seated in the cool, dark dining 
room have decided, with much laughter, 
to go through the menu again, which they 
do and are not over fed with the double 
dinner. 

The brilliant tropical sun streams in 
at the open door and through the Vene- 
tian blinds in long rays of slanting light, 
which penetrating into the cracks and cor- 
ners, drive the roaches and spiders deeper 



26 The Kingdo7ii of the 

into their dens of dirt. There is never 
any thing clean in Vera Cruz, and you 
soon cease to wonder that yellow fever 
has an eternal abiding place here. Out 
in the square the dogs and vultures 
quarrel unceasingly over the accumulated 
piles of filth. Ever and anon the vultures 
arising in countless numbers, slowly circle 
above you, settling at last all over the domes 
of the old cathedral, only to be driven 
away by the discordant clangor of her 
cracked bells. Througrh the still air comes 
the musical gurgling note of the " Clarine." 
Here and there and every-where sleeping 
beggars lie around in sunshine and 
shadow, looking more like bundles of 
filthy rags than any thing human. In- 
deed, you would take them for such until 
you become aware of a pair of sinister 
eyes closely regarding you from one end 
of said bundle, and which tell you plainly. 



' ' White Woman . " 27 

that were it night they would take all you 
have, even to your life, provided they could 
stab you from behind ; but as it is day 
they will try to filch or beg your purse. 
Down on the ground floor of the house 
the beggars and animals are stalled to- 
o-ether, while from the center of the court 
Stench from the dung heap fairly stifles 
one as he climbs the greasy stone stair- 
way,' past the second floor, the abode of 
the proprietor and his help, to the grand 
etap-e. where as in all Mexican houses, the 
better livincr rooms are to be found. 



Dinner being over, we adjourn to the 
house-top for a view of this ancient town 
stretching beneath us, and surrounded by 
the original walls still as perfect as when 
the builders left them three centuries ago. 
Across the bay rises the fortress of San 
Juan d'Ulloa. How can such an ulcer 



2 8 The Kingdom of the 

seem so beautiful ? Around it and away 
into the hazy distance stretches the spark- 
Hng ocean — asleep now after the terrible 
norther that has kept all ships from land- 
ing passengers or cargo for two days 
past. During such storms the waves break 
clear over the walls of the city, and if 
you are unfortunate enough to anchor as 
one commences, there you must abide 
until it is over, though but a few hundred 
yards from the pier and the gate of the 
city. Not a sign of life will be visible 
though the wind blows for a month, un- 
til you begin to believe that what the 
fever has spared the winds have buried 
deep in the shifting sands. Sometimes 
the sun pours its flood of golden light 
downward during the entire storm ; then 
the sight of those great green waves 
breaking 'over the brilliantly painted town 
is beautiful in the extreme. Away on the 



' ' White Woman . " 29 

other side stretch the low dunes of the 
coast, while the dark foliage of the Terra 
Caliente rises gradually, terrace on terrace, 
until in the distance the gigantic walls of 
the great table-land of Mexico appear to 
bar the way to all further progress ; while 
over all the snowy cone of Orizaba glitters 
like a diadem. Only when the winds have 
moaned themselves to sleep will the gates 
of the town open and the drowsy gens- 
d'armes appear yawning on the quay. I 
have no doubt that they are forced to 
awaken even then and are indignant that 
these American ships will not permit them 
to postpone all things until the arrival 
of that Spaniards' day of reckoning — 
" Mafiana " (to-morrow). 

At least, judging by the sullen looks 
with which they greeted us this morning, I 
think they would willingly have consigned 
us to a fate like unto that which was 



30 The Kingdom of the 

meted out to three Enorlishmen. With the 
usual daring- recklessness of their race, 
they entered into a wag-er (not long since) 
that they could swim from the castle to 
the pier. Only one accomplished it. Noth- 
ing save shrieks, wildly tossing arms, and 
a shadow of blood on the water, told of 
the fate of the others. 

Before leaving the ship we were shown 
the jawbones of a shark that had been cap- 
tured in these waters by the sailors during 
the last voyage. They were so enormous, 
that when opened they could be passed 
over a man's shoulders. 



White Woman y 31 



CHAPTER VII. 

WAS yellow fever known to the In- 
dians, or is it only a result of the 
*' hiorher civilization" introduced with the 
advent of Spain and the bearers of the 
" One, True Cross?" We are blessed with 
a consul here who seems proof against it. 
Some time since, on hearing that his suc- 
cessor had arrived on one of the ships, he 
went out to gfreet him, and assured him that 
he would not be able to live in the place — 
would die of yellow fever before the year 
was out. The new-comer was so terribly 
frightened that he did die of the disease 
before he had time to land ; so Mr. G. 
staid on and on, until old age, not fever, 
called the time on him. A lazier man I 
never saw. Going in one morning, at about 



2,2 The Kingdom of the 

eleven o'clock, I find himself, wife, and some 
of his family playing on violins and violon- 
cellos, and dressed in as little as possible. 
What there is of it has certainly been slept 
in. At any rate, it is of a description more 
suited for bed than the reception room. 

We are favored with a call from him 
later, and pressed to attend a ball that is to 
come off that night. " But we are not in- 
vited, and you say it is private; then, again, 
we leave at midnight, and are in our travel- 
ing" clothes." 

" None of these reasons will hold good 
here," was the answer. " They will be glad 
to see you, and your clothes are all right for 
Vera Cruz." 

So we go, and at the very entrance, 
under a bower of palms, are greeted by the 
host and hostess faultlessly appareled in full 
evening dress. However, we can not run 



" White Woman y 33 

away now, so we sail boldly forward. I 
hitch at my collar in a vain endeavor to hide 
its soaked appearance, consequent on the 
sea bath received in landing, while the ladies 
with one shake put themselves in perfect 
condition for any thing. It takes an Amer- 
ican woman to do that. The ball is beau- 
tiful. These Mexican houses are all built 
around open courts, and here the moon 
shines down where the magnolia leaves glis- 
ten and stately palms wave softly, keeping 
time to the music of the fountains, while the 
band of musicians in the marble arcade 
above are playing a national melody on soft- 
toned mandolins. As we enter, there ap- 
pears to be a grand promenade in progress, 
but shortly the couples interchange and pass 
through some of the figures of our lanciers, 
varied now and then by a slowly drifting 
waltz. It is the famous "Danza," and is 
charming. We have to thank these people 



34 The Kiitgdom of the 

of Vera Cruz for a delicjhtful entrance into 
their country. The ball is a bit of the pro- 
verbial hospitality of old Spain ; and where 
will you meet with its equal ? We find it 
hard to leave, and it is close on to midnight 
before our party descend and walk through 
the silent streets to where the train awaits 
to carry us to the capital. 



White Woman y 35 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MEXICO possesses but one railroad 
(1879), and therefore its managers 
do very much as they please, and travelers 
suffer in consequence. Each end of the 
train carries a van full of soldiers, who to 
me appear much more disposed to rob than 
to protect. Still, as they are well paid, for 
Mexico, and we are armed, we shall proba- 
ably get through in safety, though this part 
of the world is more celebrated for its brig- 
andage than all the rest put together. It 
was a common thing, in the old days of the 
stage, to be stopped fifteen or twenty times. 
Even after you had entered the gates of the 
City of Mexico you were not safe, and were 
sure to arrive with nothing save what nature 
gave you. So certain was this to be the case 



2,6 The Kiiigdoni of the 

that your friends in the town always sent 
word that they would meet you at the Bar- 
rier with papers, wherewith you might, in a 
measure, clothe yourself. But we hope for 
better luck, as we roll out of the Vera Cruz 
station and settle down for a few hours 
sleep while crossing the Terra Caliente 
(Hot-land). The cars are of the common 
English type, and we snatch a few hours of 
wretched sleep as best we may, half sitting, 
half lying, and wholly uncomfortable. It 
does not seem an hour since starting, when 
we are awakened by a clap of thunder and 
a dash of rain against the windows. What 
a changed world is before us ! Gone is the 
sleepy ocean, the yellow, desolate sand 
dunes, and the hot, enervating air of the 
torrid zone. Now all is fresh and strong, 
full of life and vigor, and the towering 
mountains are around us every-where. Our 
train rushes through gorges and over bridges 



" White Woman,'' 37 

spanning roaring torrents. At Cordova we 
alight in the midst of coffee plantations, 
beds of flaming tropical flowers, and hosts 
of flying parrots. The Cordilleras have 
closed in around us, and white-headed Ori- 
zaba seems a near neip^hbor. 



TJie Kingdom of the 



CHAPTER IX. 

NOTWITHSTANDING our knowledge 
of the character of these people, we 
decided (two of us) to take the stage over- 
land from Cordova to Orizaba, some sixteen 
miles, and there board the train for the cap- 
ital. I think our safe transit was due to the 
lact that no one had dared attempt this 
route for years ; hence we were not ex- 
pected. 

Cordova is more tropical than Orizaba, 
being some hundreds of feet further down 
the mountains. As we sit in her little hotel, 
eating our breakfast and waiting for the 
stage to start, long avenues of the coffee 
plant stretch away before us. Resembling 
the willow, with the berry growing close to 
the stem and under the leaves, it forms a 



" White Woman r 39 

thick hedge on either side of the way. 
Flaming Hibiscus and poppies are every- 
where, while overhead the orange blossoms 
fill the air with their dreamy fi-agrance, and 
fall now and then in snowy showers. At 
the far end of a tropical street, silent and 
deserted as are all tropical streets the mo- 
ment the sun touches them, rise the o-reen 
ridges of the lower mountains, while high 
above soars the grand cone of Orizaba. 
That old mountain is the oruardian of this 
section ot the land. You never lose sioht 
ol it until you enter the valley of the capital. 
As we drive away, parrots chatter at us 
from the house-tops and trees. That we do 
not run over some of these sleeping figures 
in the streets is a miracle. They do not 
move an inch. Look out there ! A fraction 
more and that man's head would have been 
gone. He shows no consciousness of his 
danger, but simply hugs tighter his ragged 



40 The Kingdom of the 

serape, and draws down more closely the 
greasy sombrero, composing himself to a 
sleep that will last all day, broken only by 
his animal sense of huno-er; even that will 
not keep him awake long. But, when night 
comes he will rise, and with the swift, silent 
movement of our northern Indian, skulk 
around for hours. Then it will behoove 
you, if you meet him in the moonlight or 
darkness, to be well on your guard, for he 
does not love you. He would take great 
delight in runnino- that long- murderous- 
looking stiletto between your ribs — that 
would be a pleasure not to be deferred, 
even until mafiana. 

This ride is one long to be remem- 
bered, for many reasons. The wagon has 
no springs, and if there has ever been a 
road it has been abandoned. I think our 
driver makes it a point to drive over every 



" White Woman r 41 

enormous bowlder on the mountains. The 
horses can cHmb Hke cats, and as lone as 
the harness and wa^on hold together, and 
we manage to stay in the latter, we are 
bound to get on ; but there is no chance for 
conversation, nor can we admire much of 
the scenery. When the horses halt at noon, 
we are Surrounded by a lot of as villainous- 
looking rascals as the world holds, and it 
dawns upon us that perhaps we may be 
robbed, if not murdered. However, I think 
either the "professionals" in these hills are 
away, or they are too much astounded at 
our impudence in coming to act in the mat- 
ter. In the end we rush onward, leaving 
them still gaping and scarcely sufficiently 
awake to realize what had happened. 

After an hour's more torture, we roll 
into Orizaba, just as the train which con- 
tains a woman from Hoosierdom draws up. 



42 The Kingdom of the 

Her face expresses strong disappointment 
at our safe arrival, as she has confidently 
predicted both robbery and murder. 

Of the scenery on the ride we have not 
the smallest recollection, and we would not 
take it a^ain to see the mountains of Eden. 



" White Woman!' 43 



CHAPTER X. 

WHILE in Cordova some very amus- 
ing things happened. If you know 
who the ladies were that accompanied me 
on my last tour, you have my full permis- 
sion to question them thereon. 

At Orizaba, climate, foliage, and flowers 
are all as in our own latitude in May. 
From there onward we mount, and twist, 
and turn, until with an extra snort the 
great double-ended engine, having accom- 
plished its task, pauses at Boca del Monte, 
the end of as daring a piece of railway 
engineering as the world holds except, 
perhaps, the " Meigs R'y'" ii^ Chili. 
During the ascent the traveler feasts his 



44 The Kingdom of the 

eyes upon a most marvelous panorama. 
Leaving Orizaba he might fancy that the 
train is rushing through the o-orPfes of our 
Alleghenies — the same fresh air and rushing 
waters, the same foliage. Only now and 
then, by a glimpse of the snow masses of 
the upper mountains, he sees that here 
nature is cast in a grander mold. The 
quaint town of "Maltrata" is passed, and 
at Esperanze on the great upper Table- 
Land we are served with fruits and coffee 
for breakfast, all the while submitting to 
a close inspection from a wretched, thiev- 
ing looking lot of people, who are only 
prevented by the soldiers from laying vio- 
lent hands on the " heretics." One does 
not feel entirely safe until the guard locks 
the train doors, and it draws slowly out 
on what proves to be a long, dusty ride 
to Pueblo. Still the sights and sounds 
are so strange and foreign that it is not 



''White Wonia7iy 45 

an uninteresting day. Behind us rises the 
wall of mountains sweeping away in digni- 
fied magnificence east and west, and 
forming the rim of this great flat basin 
over which we are moving. As level and 
limitless as our own western plains, it 
stretches away to the northward, desolate 
and devoid of life or movement, save for 
some majestic moving pillars of dust and 
some millions of cacti, with here and there 
a skulking dog and slouching Mexican, 
moving off with gaits so near alike that 
were it not for the upright position of the 
latter it would be difficult to distinofuish 
between them. It is indeed impossible 
to do so at a distance, and as you ap- 
proach, both man and beast settle into 
watchful silence ; the sombrero of the 
former is slouched more and more over 
his evil face, while the wolf-like head of 
the latter is buried in his shaggy hair. 



4-6 The Kingdom of tJie 



CHAPTER XI. 

THIS people have certainly reduced 
highway robbery to a science. Not 
long since there pulled out of the station 
of the capital a train loaded with silver 
for exportation. It was carefully inspected 
before starting and carefully guarded dur- 
ing the journey; yet on the arrival at 
Vera Cruz, one car had been completely 
emptied of its valuable cargo, leaving no 
trace of where it occurred, though the 
" how" was plainly to be seen. One of the 
rogues had attached himself to the bottom 
of the car, and with the aid of a small saw 
effected an entrance. You must understand 
that these trains at that time (1879) moved 
slowly — three hundred and forty miles in 
eighteen hours— to believe that this could 



' ' White Woman ." 47 

be done, as done it was. Once inside, the 
rest was simple enough. He had only to 
drop the bags through the hole at certain 
previously agreed upon points, where they 
were quickly spirited away, and not one 
dollar ever recovered. All of which illus- 
trates the old adaoe, " li a thino- is worth 
doing at all, it is worth doing well." As 
the millions of "the people" are a great 
band of thieves, even the expert Adams 
Express Company could not have recov- 
ered the vanished silver. 

"Well, old man, never mind the robbers. 
Just look at this." And the speaker holds 
up a superb pineapple, whose fragrance fills 
the air. It is so perfectly ripe that we pull 
it to pieces by sections, finding even the 
core tender and juicy', and is so different 
from the leathery stuff offered us under the 
name at home that no one would know it as 



48 The Kingdom of the 

the same fruit. With it is sold that strancre 
production of nature called "cherry moya," 
about the size of an orangfe, with a rouoh, 
dark green rind, which, on being cut open, 
displays a soft, white paste, tasting like va- 
nilla cream. They say that nothing save 
water must be taken with it ; wine or liquor 
of any kind producing distress and some- 
times serious illness. Here is also the 
granadita, a yellow gourd, whose contents 
look like tapioca ; the sappodilla, potato- 
like on the outside, pink inside, and tasting 
like a rotten apple. On the whole, aside 
from the pines and oranges, I do not care 
for Mexican fruits. Most ol them are an 
acquired taste, and I hear a man's voice 
outside, saying, "Well, I would give all of 
these for one northern pear. Just live here 
as long as I have, and you will become thor- 
oughly nauseated with the very smell of a sap- 
podilla." All of which I can readily believe. 



' ' White Wo7nan . " 49 



CHAPTER XII. 

OUR train rolls onward, and the glare 
and the heat are oppressive. This 
plateau must, at some period in the world's 
history, have been the basin of a vast lake. 
Now it is used for the cultivation of the 
cactus plant, from which comes the na- 
tional drink, " pulque," a liquid looking like 
skimmed milk and intoxicating in its effects. 
Yet it is simply the fermented juice of the 
cactus, and is drawn from that plant by 
means of a long copper tube, shaped like 
a gourd, one end of which is driven into 
the stalk of the plant, while a native, hold- 
ing the other between his lips, sucks the 
liquid into the tube. Here, there, and 
every-where you see these serape-draped 



50 The Kingdoiii of the 

and sombrero-crowned figures standino- si- 
iently at this work. The hquor is carried 
in pig-skins all over the land, and I know 
of no stranofer si^ht than a lone train of 
fiat cars loaded with these skins full to 
bursting. Every movement makes them 
quiver with apparent life.* As the train 
pauses now and then, natives come up, and 
untying a leg or neck, take long draughts 
therefrom. All through the towns and cities 
pulque shops take the place of the bar- 
rooms of our country, and the sour smell 
coming from them is most disgusting. 

Our train moves at a jog trot, and every 
now and then pulls up alongside of one 
pulque-ladened, the smell from which forces 
us to close the carriage windows. After many 
hours of heat and dust, we finally halt at Ap- 
pizaccio, the junction for Pueblo de los Ange- 
los, whither we are bound, for Pueblo is three 



''White Wofiiany - 51 

centuries old, and possesses the most beau- 
tiful cathedral in all the land. As we await 
the startino^ of the train, we are treated to 
a sight of one of the most superb specimens 
of mankind that it has ever been our good 
fortune to look upon. Fully six and one- 
half feet in height, and splendidly propor- 
tioned, he is garbed in closely-fitting black ; 
down the seams of his trousers run broad 
bands of silver embroidery, while his feet 
are incased in English riding shoes, with 
spurs attached. The short jacket is heavily 
embroidered with silver, and from beneath 
a jeweled and embroidered sombrero gaze 
a pair of wondrous black eyes, giving life 
to a face perfect in every line, and set off 
by waving curls. He knows he is hand- 
some, and I am obliged to hustle the ladies 
into the car or run the risk of being utterly 
deserted. I am strongly under the impres- 



52 The Kijiodoiu of tJie 

sion that he is the ^reat inatadore, Manzan- 
tin, who has been brought over from Spain, 
and will receive $15,000 for three perform- 
ances in the ring at Pueblo and the City of 
Mexico, 



White Woman y 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE quaint old town of "Pueblo de los 
Angelos" went to sleep centuries ago. 
Quiet reigns in her streets and squares, 
under her shady arcades, and within the 
solemn silence of her beautiful cathedral, 
whose walls are built of precious marbles 
and onyx, and adorned with many jewels. 
As they catch the light of the sun through 
the painted windows they glow and quiver 
with renewed life, and then go to sleep once 
more, as though it were useless to rebel 
against the established order of things; 
The great orange trees in the square are 
laden with fruit and snowy with blossoms, 
whose fragrance fairly overpowers one. Per- 
haps it is the cause of the general sleepy 



54 The Kingdom of the 

condition of place and people. At any rate, 
between sunshine and perfume, we find our- 
selves soon seated where the shadows are 
thickest, where the quiet is most intense, 
and where we are lulled ere long into slum- 
ber by the splashing fountains. This is 
what we came for, so why go any farther. 
We will awaken later, and stroll out by that 
jaloused window, behind which a fan and 
dark eyes have been beckoning to and 
watching us for an hour. We are told that 
the view is superb from the roof of the 
church, but sunset is a better time for that ; 
so let us slumber on until then, lulled by 
the falling waters, soothed by the gurgling 
music of the clarines. 

The altitude of this city is over seven 
thousand feet, and when one tries to climb 
to the cathedral towers one fully realizes 
the fact. Still the panorama unfolded be- 



' ' White Woman . " 55 

fore them repays all fatigue and shortness 
of breath. 

In the center of a green valley, full of 
running streams and glistening lakes, stands 
this City of the Angels, while off in the dis- 
tance rises the pyramid of Cholula. In the 
days of the iVztecs it was crowned by a 
temple to the God of the Air, while around 
the base spread a city old before the days 
of Montezuma, and as sacred to her people 
as is Mecca or Benares to the millions of 
the old world. There occurred that terrible 
retribution taken by Cortez for the butch- 
ering of his soldiers ; and now, even from 
here, one can see the white arms of the 
cross gleaming from the spot where once 
stood the shrine of the heathens. Beyond 
it rises the great mountain of Popocatapetl 
like a vast cone of sugar against the deep 
blue of the sky, while in the encircling 
chain the peaks of Ixtaccihuatl and Molenki 



56 The Kingdom of the 

stand forth most prominently. It is said 
that in the days of old, when in the North 
Gitche Manito, the mighty, descended and 
called the nations together, here in this 
peaceful land Popocatapetl and his wife 
Ixtaccihuatl lived harmoniously, he smok- 
ing occasionally a pipe of peace and so- 
ciability with their neighbor, Bachelor Mo- 
lenki. But Ixtaccihuatl could not forego 
the desire of her sex, and one day, when 
Popocatapetl was slumbering, carried on a 
flirtation with Molenki. Popocatapetl awak- 
ening suddenly, saw the entire perform- 
ance, and great was his indignation. 
Fiercely waxed the battle. Each belched 
forth great volumes of flame and smoke, 
while Ixtaccihuatl looked placidly on as 
though entirely innocent. Hoary headed 
Orizaba watched the state of affairs from 
afar with great disapproval, yet the etiquette 
of the mountains would not permit him to 



''White Womany 57 

interfere until things reached such a point 
that the world was threatened with destruc- 
tion. Then he quietly sent "Ahousca " 
(that purple mountain yonder, shaped like 
a hog's back, which, by the way, is the 
meaning of the name) to inform the powers 
that control even such things as volcanos. 
(I should like to say just here that I have 
spelled the names of these mountains as 
they are pronounced.) 

At any rate, it was noticed that a sudden 
calm came over each and all ; that Ixtacci- 
huatl retired unto herself, and drawino- a 
vast winding sheet over her recumbent form 
sank into a slumber uninterrupted to this 
day, that Popocatapetl grumbled no more, 
and Molinki became forever silent, and thus 
they stand. You can plainly see the sleep- 
ing form of the wife under her mantle of snow, 
while husband and' lover having drawn on 
their night-caps slumber on forever. The * 



58 The Kiuodojji of tJic 

moon is rising' .slowly and grandly over the 
sleeping" "White Woman" as we descend 
from the tower, and one can alniost fancy 
that one sees her move; but if so it is only 
to compose herself to a more profound 
slumber. Others believe that Ixtaccihuatl is 
the sleeping Montezuma, and that some 
day he will arise, and driving- the strangers 
from his kingdom, seize his own once more. 
To this day you W'ill see on many house- 
tops strange groups of figures intently gaz- 
ing toward his sleeping form, watching and 
waiting for his coming. 



White Wo7na7iy 59 



T 



CHAPTER XIV. 

HE Pyramid of Choliila, which rises 
from the plain some three miles from 
Pueblo, at first sight, might be taken for 
one of those Indian .mounds so often to be 
found in our own land. Though the sides 
of its base are twice the lenorth of those of 
the Great Pyramid of Cheops, it is only 
about one-third as high as the .Egyptian 
structure. The centuries that have rolled 
by since Cortez looked first upon it have 
clothed all with a thick jungle of tropical 
foliage, and it is only here and there the 
traveler can discern the original brick- work 
used in the construction. The ancient road- 
way still winds around to its summit, where 
now the little white church holds aloft the 
emblem of Christianity (and from which the 



6o The Kingdoui of tJie 

altar to the God of the Air has vanished 
long ago). One could almost wish that the 
ruins of the heathen temple had been al- 
lowed to remain ; but not a bit of the 
sacrificial stone, and no capital or pillar can 
be found either here or in the valley where 
once stood the city with its streets and 
squares — nothing here, save the little white 
chapel ; nothing below, save a few wretched 
huts and a handful of more wretched peo- 
ple, whose only occupation seems to be 
sleeping and the drawing of pulque. No 
thoughts of daring deeds or human sacri- 
fice with them ; no high festivals to either 
the Nazarene or to the God of the Air, 
and I ^doubt if you questioned them whether 
they would know the difference between 
the two. 

As we gaze upon the land spread out 
before us, one of those sudden tropical 



' ' White Woman . " 6 1 

storms comes on, preceded by a most 
fantastic chasing of light and shade across 
the valley and by the formation and stately 
progress of three gigantic "dust spouts" 
that move swiftly from place to place. 
They are dangerous looking things, and I 
notice men and beasts fleeincr from their 
pathway. A sudden darkening of the 
heavens, followed by a down-pour of rain 
wipes them out, and for awhile seems to 
have wnped out every thing else. From 
our shelter we can not see a yard, so 
tremendous is the deluge. It passes as 
suddenly as it came and the sun shines forth 
brilliantl)'. Then we go down the sides 
of the ancient and blood-stained Pyramid 
of Cholula and return to Pueblo de los 
Aneelos in — a street car. 



62 The Kingdom of the 



CHAPTER XV. 

CITY OF MEXICO. 

*' ^ I DRAINS down here are so very po- 
-A. lite," that this one takes at least 
half an hour backing and blowing, snorting 
and puffing, apologizing, so to speak, for 
the enforced intrusion on the depot grounds, 
ere it finally comes to a standstill. We 
know by seeing every one connected with 
it suddenly roll themselves in their serapes 
and go to sleep, that we have reached 
our destination, or at least that it will be 
some hours before any of that gang can 
be induced to move further. Bestirring 
ourselves and collecting our belongings — 
such as have survived the day — we emerge 
dust-laden and smoke-begrimed into the 
silence of this old city. Profoundly asleep. 



" White Woma7iy 63 

even as though an enchanter had waved 
his wand over all, casting man and beast 
into slumber only to awaken at the com- 
ing of the king. Can this be on the 
same continent with New York and 
Chicaofo ? or are we indeed in the heart 
of old Spain ? Long, wide streets stretch 
away in every direct-ion before us, on each 
side of which rise the square-topped houses 
with their heavily barred windows, while 
through the doorways we catch a glimpse 
now and then of palm and flower em- 
bowered Patios. To our right against the 
crumbling arches of an old stone aque- 
duct rise the grotesque and moss-grown 
fiorures of a gr-reat fountain, over whose 
stone basins the water has fallen for two 
hundred years. That seems a bit of an- 
cient Rome. Before us the dark woods 
of the Alameda spread away until they 
meet the groves of Chapultepec, where 



64 TJie Kingdom of the 

stands the tree under which Montezuma 
wept for his lost kintrdom ; while before 
and above us faintly gleam the cones of 
Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl in the shim- 
mering moonlight. Nothing human in 
sight ; nothing to denote that the place is 
peopled otherwise than with ghosts, un- 
less it be those bundles under the shadow 
of that door-way, or that form, half ani- 
mal, with the slouched sombrero and closely 
wrapped serape that skulks across the 
deserted square from one bit of shadow 
to another. Silently we regard it all for 
a few moments, scarcely daring to venture 
further into this city of the long ago, un- 
til we are reminded by a citizen of the 
old town, whom we have chanced to meet 
on the way up, that it would be well to 
seek an hotel and the protection afforded 
thereby, as " these people are not friendly." 
With great difficulty two crazy old cabs 



''White Woman r 65 

are secured; on one of which we load our 
luggage, while we crawl with great misgiv- 
ings into the other. Creaking and bang- 
ing along over the uneven pavements they 
make noise enough to awaken the dead, 
but do not in any way disturb the pro- 
found repose of the denizens of these 
houses. Indeed, I' fancy when Gabriel 
blows his trumpet he will here at least 
be answered by a shrug and the murmur- 
ino- word " maiiana," while the people 
compose themselves for another nap. Per- 
haps this eternal sleeping is part of their 
relio-ion which they must maintain until 
Montezuma yonder on the mountain comes 
down unto them, and so long as he sleeps 
they will sleep, the better to be able to 
meet him in proper form. At least, one 
would fancy so here, for not even a bark- 
ino- doe answers the clatter of the worn- 
out cabs. 



66 The Ki7igdom of the 



CHAPTER XVI. 

A SHOWER of blows on the heavily- 
barred doorway of the Hotel Itur- 
bide finally secures us an entrance, but 
nothing more. Then the drowsy porter, 
appearing to regard people who are out 
at such an uncanny hour as a pack of 
harmless idiots about whom he need not 
bother himself, vanishes. We mount, un- 
attended, a vast marble staircase, pass 
down lono^ silent corridors, o-aze througrh 
doorways opening into echoing chambers 
deserted save by a stray moonbeam here 
and there, or by the many frescoes of 
forgotten faces on walls and ceilings- 
faces invisible to us at first, as the dark- 
ness in there is palpable. But, throwing 
aside a casement, floods of moonlight pour 



" White Wo7nanr 67 

over all, giving seeming life to these peo- 
ple of the past, and much comfort to we 
of the present. Now that we are in here, 
we mean to remain, so we help ourselves 
to rooms and do it well, takinor an entire 
suite on the grand floor overlooking the 
street. Vast rooms, all of them, with a 
small bed in one corner and a large square 
mat in the center, around which five or 
six rocking chairs (the only other furniture 
in the room) are in quiet motion as though 
our entrance had caused a sudden flight 
of their occupants. (You have seen the 
same actions on the part ot chairs in 
many a front hall where you have 
appeared suddenly.) The one candle al- 
lowed for each room simply makes the 
darkness visible, therefore we combine 
forces and concentrate all from the dif- 
ferent rooms on one table. Then we sit 
down and look at each other. Not being 



68 TJic Kingdom of tJiP. 

accustomed to these rockers one or two 
of us roll over backward. Said action at 
least makes us feel more at home, and 
the silence is broken by our shouts of 
laughter. 

"It's somewhere near two a. m. Let 
us form a solid phalanx and lock up a half 
a mile of this and go to bed." 

No sooner said than acted upon, and 
the procession moves, each person carrying 
a candle. As they pass down the long 
vista, it resembles a procession of the 
" Holy Church." Each room is examined 
separately, and then securely locked and 
barricaded. All g'oes well with the invad- 
ing force whose bravery is something un- 
excelled. The fate of any enemy would 
have been appalling just then. I doubt 
if the palace has been occupied since 
Iturbide moved out. The silence, which is 
certainly overwhelming, is broken only by 




Emperor Iturbide's House. 



" White Wo77ian.'' 69 

the snarl of some prowling- cats. And we 
thank God there is something alive in this 
place, though why any first class cats that 
can move north remain here, is more than 
we can understand. 

So we settle ourselves for what is left 
of the niofht, but even as I sink into 
slumber I hear a distant voice murmur : 
"Oh, brother, I don't believe papa would 
ever find us if we were to die here." 



yo The Kinodoiu of the 



CHAPTER XVII. 

IF it was quiet last night it is noisy 
enough this morning. Before daylight 
the rattle of moving wheels and cries of 
the market vendors render sleep almost 
impossible, especially as we have insisted 
upon sleeping with open windows. A 
Mexican closes both windows of glass and 
shutters of iron, the night air being dreaded 
as much as robbery or murder. The 
street of the "San Francisco" is a moving 
mass of people, many carrying huge water 
jugs or trays of strange looking fruits on 
their heads. Here comes a dray drawn 
by four mules abreast. There go a party 
evidently English, out for an early canter. 
They are gravely saluted by a splendid 
figure clothed in the national riding cos- 



' ' White Woman . " 71 

tume, all of fine leather, heavily embroid- 
ered in beads and silk, the broad sombrero 
glistening with silver lace and a jewel or 
two, while saddle and bridle are richly 
ornamented — the horse, a fine black an- 
imal, seeming thoroughly aware of his 
splendid appearance. Over the way stands 
a sleeping donkey who knows too well 
that his only chance for rest is to take it 
standing. Across his back his master has 
thrown two pig-skins that appear to quiver 
and palpitate with life. i\round about are 
grouped a lot of wretched people waiting 
their turn to be served. The old man 
seizes the neck ot a skin, and untieine a 
cord wrapped around it, allows the bluish- 
white and sour-smelling pulque to run into 
the gourds extended to receive it. In all 
my stay in the country I have never been 
able to bring myself to taste this liquid. 
The sour-smell pervading people and shops 



72 The Kingdoiu of the 

has many a time driven me from places I 
desired to see. But the natives drink it 
down with great ousto. How thoroughly 
foreign every thing is, and how ancient, 
yet this is on the same continent with our 
own busthng modern nation. 

I am recalled from the window by a 
clatter on our doors, and open to find our 
luggage bearers. Thank goodness ! To 
have donned ao-ain those dust ladened, 
sea-soaked clothes would have been any- 
thing save pleasant. By numerous signs 
we make it understood that baths are 
wanted, and are conducted down many 
stairways into the bowels of the earth, 
where we find a row of rooms, each with 
a tub so enormously deep that we seize 
convulsively the edge, thinking that there 
can be no bottom at all. The water was 
cool and clear when we entered, but not 



White Woman.'' 



7: 



so when we came out. If cleanliness is 
one of the items upon which man is 
judged, I am most happy in that said 
judgment was deferred in our cases until 
after these baths, or none of us would 
have ranked near unto "godliness." We 
have not looked respectable for so long 
that our rejuvenation is a cause of deep 
satisfaction. Out in the sunny court-yard, 
in little huts of bark, covered with trail- 
ing vines, breakfast is served. Baskets ot 
fruit, the green cherry moya, the yellow 
granaditta, the luscious pine and golden 
orange, followed by an omelet a fillet 
and good coffee, though generally I do 
not like either the Mexican coffee or 
chocolate. After all we conclude that 
Mexico is a land of the living, else 
whence come these good things to eat 
and who cooks them ? What a small 
world it is after all — as just here I raise 



74 The Kingdovi of tJie 

my eyes and standing in the doorway 
see two ladies, friends whom I have not 
seen since I left them at the foot of 
Mount Tabor in the Holy Land years 
ago. The meeting is most pleasant, and 
we cease to feel so entirely as "strangers 
in a stranee land." After all, it is the 
people, not the place, that make the 
home, and to one who wanders the wide 
world over, making friends in all quarters, 
the world at large soon becomes "home." 



' ' White Woman . " 75 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THIS visit to Mexico occurs at a time 
when people from the "States" are few 
and far between. It is just after an expedition 
from our land which did not leave the best 
impression upon the minds of the Mexicans. 
Our first walk is much like a procession, 
especially does one of the ladies attract 
attention. Her deep mourning seemingly 
upsets the populace. Later we learn 
that the Mexican women never leave the 
house during the period of mourning, and 
rarely, if ever, walk. We are in search of 
better quarters. The hotel is cold and bar- 
ren and would not be pleasant for a pro- 
longed stay, and we must remain in the city 
until the next ship from Vera Cruz, three 
weeks hence. In our quest we are most 



"J^ The Kingdom of the 

fortunate, and from our entrance into the 
house of Mrs. Gadsden, No. 7 Seminario, 
dates one of the most deHghtful periods of 
our lives. It is on the great square next to 
the Palace, across from the parish church 
and the great cathedral, and occupies the 
entire "grand" or upper floor. Beneath it 
live a senator with his family, a big yellow- 
cat and a large green parrot. Below them 
on the ground floor and around the Patio 
the concierge and sundry families of profes- 
sional beggars hold sway, the latter always 
giving the inhabitants of " their upper 
floors " the preference in the matter of do- 
nating alms, and with an air which assures 
us that they consider that we are all of one 
family, — " God forbid ! " 

From the balcony of our rooms we over- 
look the entire city, and away on all sides 
to the erand wall of encirclino- mountains, 
over which, like two hoary-headed sentinels 



( 



" White Woinmz." jj 

on guard, tower Popocatapetl and Ixtacci- 
huatl. Many an evening we assemble on 
the house-top to watch the sun go down^ 
and witness the sudden falHng of the night 
on this wondrous panorama. On all sides 
spread the fiat-roofed gaily-colored Spanish 
city, through whose midst broad avenues 
stretch away in all directions, and above 
which the campaniles of the many churches 
mount high in air. Just before us those of 
the great cathedral are most conspicu- 
ous. That dark circle near the base of the 
one on the left is the famous calendar stone 
of the Aztecs. In the court of the museum 
beneath one can faintly see the outlines 
of the sacrificial stone, which, in the clays 
of Montezuma, crowned the Teocalli, that 
stood where is now the public square. It 
is only three hundred years since the cries 
of agony from human victims rang out over 
this fair valley, since the blood of their sac- 



78 The Kingdom of the 

rifices fiovved in torrents down the steps of 
stone. The cross has banished all that, but 
just behind us rise the towers of the church 
of Santo Domineo, in whose walls were 
found the withered remains (now in the 
museum) of two poor human beings, — the 
one a little eirl — who had been immured, 
and who had starved and smothered to 
death in slow agony. Surely the Aztecs 
could teach the priests of the cross nothing 
in the matter of cruelty. But, thank God, 
that was long ago. Now you may walk the 
streets of this fair city and be in danger 
from no religion ; but it would not be safe 
to go out after dark. These people are 
assassins and thieves of the worst order. 
They will not attack a party, but do not go 
alone. The shadows are already thick in 
the arcades below us, but the lakes which 
surround the capital gleam brightly in the 
reddening light as the sun sinks. Off 



" White Woirtany 79 

beyond the green Alameda stretches the 
avenue to Chapultepec, whose towers crown 
the summit ol a distant hill ; beyond 
which one can just discern the spot where 
the terrible battle of " Molino del Rey" 
occurred in 1847. Off to the right the 
cemetery and shrine of Guadalupe crowns 
the summit of one of the foot hills. It 
was there that the Virgin showed her- 
self to Indian John. The sun is going 
down like a great )'ellow ball. A sudden 
pause seems to have fallen over the life of 
the city. Vast flocks of vultures are slowly 
settling on the domes of the churches — 
all things appear as though waiting for 
some change. It comes, suddenly and 
swiftly — the curtain of the night — wrap- 
ping all things in darkness, while it casts 
over man and beast a mantle of pro- 
found slumber, to which many of them 
having no homes yield instantly, and sink 



8o TJie Kingdom of the 

on the pavements, where they will re- 
main until morning. Only the tips of the 
higher mountains flame out like great light- 
houses, but even they soon desert their 
posts, and a mantle of darkness most pro- 
found wraps the Kingdom of Montezuma in 
its folds. 



Wh ite Woman . ' ' 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE flat below us, occupied by the sen- 
ator, is €71 fete to-night, which, for 
some reason, strangely excites our dog, 
" Palomo." He has been crazy to get down 
there, and has been impatiently waiting for 
some one to open our stair doorway, which 
I do on the sly. The result is disastrous. 
With a bark and a rush he descends like 
greased lightning. I see him enter their 
kitchen door and hear a most tremendous 
powwow, followed by a clattering and much 
noise. Has he bitten the cook, I wonder ? 
The commotion is not stationary, nor con- 
fined to the kitchen, but progresses from 
room to room. At last I see a yellow 
streak closely pursued by a black and white 
streak flying round and round the banquet 



82 The Kingdom of the 

hall, under the table, over the feet of the 
excited guests, until with a final bark of 
triumph, Palomo drives the cat up one of 
the pillars of the patio and rushes himself 
up our staircase to safety and me, whom he 
finds convulsed with laughter in a dark 
corner. I never saw any thing more ex- 
pressive or human than the actions of that 
dog on his return, Such delighted eyes, 
such tail-waggings. Forever after it was 
only necessary to call once, and he would 
rush for the stairs and never return until he 
had found that cat, no matter what he broke 
in the finding. Many a time I have seen 
the "senatorial dignitary" sitting cross- 
legged on the table for safety's sake. Poor 
Palomo, he has long since gone to the " Isle 
of Dogs," which must surely be the canine 
heaven, where I hope he may renew his 
youth now and then by meeting a yellow 
cat. 



* * White Woman . " 83 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE next morning en route to our 
legation we pass through the great 
square before the cathedral, and are at 
once reminded of poor Carlotta, as she it 
was who caused the planting of all these 
trees, making the spot one of beauty. 
But beautiful though it is noiu, it was 
in the ancient days one of horror, for 
here stood the great Teocalli. At the 
portals of the cathedral we pause a mo- 
ment to inspect the bird market. No 
end of chattering, singing parrots. But 
to my ear the most beautiful notes in 
the world are produced by the little gray 
clarine, a bird somewhat larger than our 
pestiferous sparrow and of a slate color. 



84 The Kingdom of the 

But, oh the music of its voice ! I remem- 
ber one Hue of an old sone that well de- 
scribes it : 

'"Tis the voice of the mermaid as she sings 'neath the 
sea." 

If mortals could descend to old ocean's 
caverns they would expect to hear just 
such gurgling music. 

Entering this great church, towering 
so grandly above me, I am again con- 
vinced that Mexico holds the only "cathe- 
drals " on our continent. We have many 
beautiful " churches " at home, but they 
are not worthy to be called cathedrals. 
But in the sanctuaries of Pueblo and this 
city one finds cathedrals that equal most 
in the old world and are surpassed by 
but few. Vast in size, most stately in 
appearance, and decorated in the richest 
marbles — you can not but wonder how 



''White Woman r 85 

such structures could have been erected 
on our new continent at such a period. 
The interior of this one is dotted with 
the usual motley congregation, gathered 
here and there before some altar or shrine. 
Before me there kneels an old man deeply 
engaged in his devotions, which are inter- 
rupted by the woman next to him trying 
to steal his handkerchief. I suppose she 
thinks that as he is fool enough to allow 
it to stick out he deserves to have it 
stolen. However, some one, his wife at 
home probably, has provided for just some 
such an emergency by pinning it in. The 
remarks exchano-ed between the two in no 
way upset the service and draw little or 
no attention from the other worshipers, 
while the droning voice of the priest keeps 
evenly onward ; though I doubt not he* 
has spotted the would-be thief and will 
make her do penance, probably pay for 



86 The Kingdom of the 

a mass or two. The great altar glitters 
with rnarble, gold and silver, and high 
overhead on the blue vault of the dome 
hosts of painted priests, angels and chil- 
dren tumble around in the most surpris- 
ing confusion. I suppose the whole is 
typical of the painter's idea of Heaven, 
but I hope he is wrong. Those positions 
are absurd, no matter what the pleasure 
may be. 

As we gaze aloft the bells in the tower 
commence to wheeze and groan and jangle. 
All the Mexican bells are cracked and their 
melody, if it ever existed, is all gone long 
ago. Perhaps the wrangle and jangle 
which they have been forced to keep up 
during the numerous revolutions is the 
cause thereof; as the alarm is always 
given on them, and the party that secures 
the tower where they hang generally car- 








fv^ih^^^jM^him^ 



'-,->^.y>^^ 



Calendar Stone. 

(Since removed to the Museum.) 



' ' White Wommi . " 87 

ries the day. Many a revolt has been 
prevented by a word to the custodian, 
who securely bars the entrance. Nothing 
rouses these Mexicans save the sound of 
these particular bells. We do not won- 
der; just now the discord would arouse 
the devil, and yet they are more in ac- 
cord with the general condition of thingfs 
here. Sweet bells would sound out of 
place and soon be jangled out of tune. 

Low on the outer walls of one of the 
towers hangs the huge stone calendar of 
the Aztecs, or rather it is imbedded in the 
wall. Its cabalistic signs and figures are 
as sharp in outline as when first it left 
the hands of its makers. When and where 
was that I wonder? Perhaps it is as old 
as the ruins of Egypt. No one knows 
surely. When you cross the court-yard 
of the museum near by and stand by the 



S8 The Kingdojn of the 

great sacrificial stone, surrounded by the 
gods of the past, it is not hard to imagine 
the scenes of the sacrifices. On top of a 
great square pyramid of steps stood this 
altar. On top of it was placed a small 
block over which the victim was stretched, 
throwing the region of the heart well up. 
With one stroke of a sharp pointed stone 
the priest cut open the body, tore out the 
living heart and held it aloft to the peo- 
ple, while over the steps gushed the 
crimson life blood of him who a moment 
before had mounted the Teocalli — a per- 
fect specimen of manhood, for none other 
was acceptable to their gods. For weeks 
he had lived on the fat of the land and 
been housed in the Holy of Holies, while 
the most beautiful maidens of the city 
were brought unto him. At last, gar- 
landed with flowers, decked in a rich 
dress of feathers, he slowly mounted the 



" WJiite Woman^ 89 

Teocalli to the sound of many gongs and 
much barbaric music. He knew what was 
coming ; he knew that each step brought 
him nearer to that awful stone ; that ere lono- 
the sunshine would be shut forever from 
his sight ; that his splendid body through 
which the life blood was bounding so 
freely would be feasted on by the priests 
around him. Mountino- higher and higher 
he cast aside as he moved his rich robes, 
broke his musical instruments, and tore his 
garlands to pieces. All the while grim 
and ghastly gods stared upon him in seem- 
ingly malignant mirth, and the discordant 
voice of the high priest expounded the 
example of his life to the people. 

"Though begun in glory, it is ending in gloom." 

But ijiat end came quickly and with 
no torture. A sudden, swift movement 
threw him backward across the stone, the 



90 The King d 01 n of th^. 

flint orlittered for an instant in the hands 
of the high priest, and then the crimson 
Hfe blood a-ushed in torrents down the 
steps of the Teocahi, over the broken 
musical instruments and soaked the gar- 
ments of by-gone splendor, while his still 
quivering heart was held aloft before the 
worshiping multitudes as they bathed hands 
and faces in his blood. Yet all this, and 
all that follows does not fill one with half 
such shuddering horror as one glimpse at 
that poor little distorted figure, so lately 
found in the walls of the Santo Domingo. 



" White Woman y 91 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THOUGH some seven thousand feet 
above the sea, Mexico is far from 
healthy. Low fevers prevail in summer, 
and the waters are poisonous. At least 
one attributes the bowel troubles that are 
apt to attack strangers to that source. To 
sit in a draft is also dangerous, nor is it 
safe to be out after dark. The weather 
was simply superb, and we had excellent 
health while there, but when I returned 
some years later, all the people whom I had 
known on my former visit had either gone 
north or were in the graveyard — the latter 
a large miajority. You must dress warmly 
always, and it is not safe to change from 
heavy to light clothing or vice versa. In 
fact the climate seemed to me like that of 



92 The Kingdom of the 

Rome. The altitude always affects one at 
first, and came near driving- us home. 

The fevers of the place are easily ac- 
counted for. The city lies lower than the 
lakes which surround it, and during the 
rainy season the water rises several feet in 
the streets and courts, and on this floats the 
scum of the sewasfe. So don't come here 
during- the rains (the summer). It is feared 
that, when the great system of drainage 
now in hand is completed, much of the 
town will dry up and collapse. But no im- 
provements were even contemplated when 
I first visited the place. It was as it had 
been for centuries, and I know did not 
relish the awakening which came shortly 
after. Those at home who shout so con- 
stantly for annexation should come down 
and see these people, when they might in 
some degree appreciate the hopelessness 



" White Woman y 95 

of a union of any sort. We have not a 
thought or feeling in common. Their ways 
are not and never will be as ours. Possess- 
ing as they do strong traits of their savage 
ancestry, we never can be in touch with 
them. We must wipe them out utterly and 
begin with a new race. They are not in 
the least like the few Spaniards who enter 
our ports at the North, but resemble more 
the hordes of Egypt and Syria, and I do 
not believe it would be any more possible 
to dwell together in unity with them, than 
with the Indians of the North. They hate 
us quite as heartily, and this hatred is fos- 
tered and kept alive by an ignorant priest- 
hood, who possess absolute power over the 
masses, and knowing that with the advent 
of northern ideas would come an end to 
all that, they oppose us bitterly, even to the 
advising of these poor wretches to fire into 
the trains from the North. This happened 



94 ^^Ji^c Ki7igdo7n of the 

as I came from El Paso, in 1887, and the 
conductor informed me that it was of con- 
stant occurrence, and that he had several 
times stopped the trains and caught the 
miscreants. • Of course the government is 
against such a state of affairs and does 
what it can to stop it, but these ignorant 
minds are only governed by their priests. 
However, annexation is not an immediate 
danger, so let us leave it. 




3 > 



White Woman y 95 



CHAPTER XXII. 

INTO the gloomy vaults of the Capu- 
chins in Vienna we entered one sum- 
mer day, leaving all brightness behind us. 
Descending the long flights of stone stairs, 
guided by a monk, who murmured softly 
the names of the illustrious dead, we paused 
for a moment before the magnificent sar- 
cophagus of Maria Theresa ; then by that 
of the little King of Rome, and, finally, 
in a dark corner, where a long ray of sun- 
light fell full upon it by a lonely sarcopha- 
gus, on which lay a wreath of immortelles. 
Stooping to see who had remembered 
the royal dead, we read on a card the 
name " Carlotta," and on the bronze be- 
neath it " Maximilian." Instantly my 



96 The Kmgdom of the 

thoughts flew westward over ocean and 
mountains to the court-yard of the old 
palace of Mexico, where stood the gor- 
geous gilded coach, given to the ill-fated 
Empress by the Emperor of Austria, and 
in which, drawn by four white mules, she 
used to make her progress to Chapul- 
tepec. Its cushions are not soiled, nor 
the gilding tarnished, while she for whom 
it was built beats her hands against the 
bars of a mad-house in Brussels, as she 
murmurs forever the name of her dead 
one. Above it waved the tree, "La 
Manieta," while it cast in showers over 
the coach its blossoms, shaped like a 
human hand of a blood- red color, making 
you shudder and draw back as though 
the hand of Juarez was still casting the 
gauntlet of hatred and defiance at those 
poor victims of Napoleon III. 



' ' White Woman . " 97 

They say in Mexico that Carlotta taunted 
Maximilian with the loss of his kingdom 
and drove him back to his certain death 
— for Juarez had warned him that such 
would be his fate if he returned. She 
entered her ship at Vera Cruz, but before 
he sank a hfeless corpse on the sands 
of Oueretaro she was a raving maniac, 
made so, as it is beheved, by poison ad- 
ministered by one of her attendants — a 
jealous woman. The people in Mexico 
loved them both, for they worked con- 
stantly, doing nothing save good. But 
that would weigh little with Juarez and 
the class he represented, as you have 
only to look at his portrait — Indian in 
every line — to fully understand. It would 
have made no difference if Maximilian 
and Carlotta had both been natives, that 
face would never have spared any thing 
that stood in its way. It is an immense 



98 The Kmgdoiu of the 

satisfaction to Americans to know that, 
though we would not permit a monarchy 
to exist on our continent, or rather the 
estabhshment of one by a foreign power, 
we did our best to save this unfortunate 
emperor, and but for the fact that the 
"attractions" of New Orleans overpowered 
our envoy, who, therefore, never reached 
Mexico, Juarez would have listened to 
Seward's remonstrance against that useless 



mu 



rder. 



White Woman.'' 99 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE sun has just thrown its first 
searching rays over the rim of the 
mountains as we start on horseback to 
visit Chapultepec. The city is not yet 
awake and bundles of people lie here and 
there and every-where. In the cathedral 
square the venders of birds have simply 
thrown old rebosas (shawls) over the 
cages and, doubling up on the ground 
underneath, have gone to sleep. As we 
pass one parrot's cage Polly is vainly 
endeavoring to awaken her owner, as she 
tries to catch sight of him over the rim 
of her cage, pausing anon to scratch her 
head and croak at us. We can scarcely 
distinguish between the gurgling of the 



lOO TJie Kmgdoju of the 

fountains and the sweet notes of the 
clarines. The orange trees are in bloom 
and the air is full of the odor of over 
ripened fruit from the market near by. 
As we pass down the street of the San 
Francisco we note the strange outlines 
of the houses. Here is the massive- 
barred front of the palace, sacred to the 
memory of the Emperor Iturbide — hal- 
lowed also by the memory of our first 
night's stay in the capital. There, is a 
fantastic house all of blue porcelain tiles, 
and yonder is a patio gleaming in many 
colors of marble ; while the next is of 
pure white, over which flaming Hibiscus 
and the dainty Passion vine tumble in 
wild profusion. Now the street widens 
out, even as the day is widening. Long 
lines of stately mansions to our left, while 
to the right stretch away the woods 
of the Alameda, and before us miles in 



" White Woman y loi 

extent and maanificent in width is the 
grand avenue to Chapuhepec, the "Paseo." 
With its double rows of trees, its 
fountains, and its royal monuments, it 
forms an avenue unique and almost un- 
rivaled in the world. In fact I know 
of none with which to compare it save 
that leading up to the arch of the Star, 
and this after it leaves the city far sur- 
passes the great avenue of Paris — in that 
it has a superb view of most stupendous 
mountains (18,000 feet in height). It is, 
of course, the grand drive of the city. I 
have exhibited myself on it several times, 
but never with such perfect success as upon 
one Easter Sunday. Having ordered my 
horse several days before, and commanded 
that he be strictly English in his get- 
up, banged tail, saddle, etc., etc., I retired 
to array myself and came out looking 
magnificently — as to clothes ; one of Pooles' 



I02 TJic Kingdom of tJip. 

latest productions in fact. Trowsers of 
the deepest blue with a broad, black band, 
patent leather riding shoes with shining 
spurs, a high hat, and an enormous bou- 
tonniere of violets. I meant to annihilate 
that town. Starting the ladies away in 
a landau (thank God, I did) I awaited 
my steed. Instead of a thoroughly cor- 
rect " Park Hack," I found before me 
one of those brown and white splotched 
circus animals, so old that his head hung 
limp before him and his tail was hairless ; 
and such a saddle! Words were useless. 
It would do no oood to swear, as neither 
man nor beast understood a word of any 
thing save their own vile patois. Even 
the cats do not know that they are so 
called in a civilized land. However, I 
ordered another horse and retreated to 
tone down my costume, Started at last, 
all went well, comparatively speaking, until 




o 



" White Woman y 103 

I reached the circle where the band was 
discoursing sweet music, then my beast 
quietly backed around and alongside of 
the rest of the hack horses, all in a 
circle around the Pao^oda, and thouo-h I 
spurred, pounded and whipped, and I 
confess, swore, he would not move a 
muscle until that piece of music was 
over. Beino; accustomed to the hug-e 
Mexican spurs, my little English ones 
produced no effect. However, I perse- 
vered until I forced the brute in time 
to move on, only to go through the 
same performance as I returned. There 
was not much pleasure in that ride, and 
to this day I am treated to side remarks 
concerning it. However, that occurred 
many years after our first ride to Cha- 
pultepec, on which occasion we met with 
several parties of English and Americans, 
and also with Mexican gentlemen — the 



I04 The Kingdom of the 

women do not ride — but I notice that all 
are in parties, none alone or in couples ; 
and am informed that it would not be 
safe to come here at this hour save in 
parties. One has only to glance at those 
skulking forms behind that hedge to fully 
believe it. 

As we enter the groves of Chapul- 
tepec (Grasshopper Hill) we pause in 
admiration. Huge red cedars, second 
only to those of California, stand thickly 
around us, while from their lofty branches 
the Spanish moss hangs like a silver 
veil. In this drv air it attains grreat 
lengths and is white and silvery, as you 
never see it in Florida. Over all and 
grander than all rises the great tree of 
Montezuma. The sun is well up in the 
heavens now and throws his glorious light 
down the aisles of this grand natural 



" White Woman y 105 

cathedral, at the further end of which 
rise the walls of the palace which stands 
on the site of that of the unfortunate 
monarch. It is on a small hill, I should 
say two hundred feet high, and in the 
present building possessing nothing of in- 
terest or beauty ; but from its ramparts 
we see one of the great panoramas of 
the world. To my mind there are five 
great panoramas which rank on a par : 
Cairo and the Nile, Constantinople from 
Galata, Moscow from Sparrow Hill, the 
Bay of Naples, and this view from Cha- 
pultepec. To this one might add Benares 
from the Ganges. This valley is a com- 
plete circle, encompassed by these gigantic 
mountains, with Chapultepec as a central 
point. Before us spreads the white city 
with its many campaniles and brilliant 
roofs, the nearer lakes gleam in the sun- 
shine, while those afar off by the mount- 



io6 TJie Kingdom of the 

ains are dark as nioht. The lower rangres 
of the Cordilleras are deep in shadow, 
with here and there slashes of brilliant 
blue and purple, while high over all rise 
the two great mountains Popocatepetl and 
Ixtaccihuatl, glistening brilliantly as they 
reflect the rays of the ever-increasing 
sunlight. Just behind us is the site of 
the battle of Molino del Rey, and over 
there to the left the tree of the Noche 
Triste. Long aqueducts in stone, cen- 
turies old, stretch their arches over the 
plains ; while in the middle distance beyond 
city and suburbs spread the dusty plains 
with their long lines of cacti plants, which 
here throw aside all romantic nonsense 
concerning the "blossoms of a century," 
etc., etc., and come forth in flower in 
from ten to fourteen years time. Then, 
having accomplished their mission wither 
away root and branch. In the immediate 



" White Woman y 107 

foreeround the avenue of the Paseo leads 
eastward until it reaches the Alameda; 
and just where they join and where the 
trees are so orreen and thick now, arose 
of old the flames of the aittcy da fes. 



io8 The KinodoDi of tJu 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

ALL roads in Mexico seem to lead 
to Chapultepec, and one comes here 
again and again to lean over its ramparts 
and feast the soul with the splendid scene. 
Its palace has now been fitted up as a 
residence for the president, gorgeous of 
course so far as the upholsterer can make 
it. We see there a very magnificent ser- 
vice of silver, made for the late emperor, 
but very little else of interest. Still, this 
is after all the most historic spot in the 
land, and here the memories of the past 
gather thickest around us. It was as dear 
to the Aztecs as was Granada to the 
Moors. In that grove below us were 
buried their monarchs. Where we stand 



" White Woman.'' 109 

they dwelt for centuries. The child-hke 
Montezuma passed the happiest years of 
his hfe here, and here he first received 
tidings of the coming of those strangers 
who were to end all things for him. 
Dark dreams had disturbed his rest. 
Earthquakes and eruptions marred the fair 
valley of his royal city. His greatest 
temple was destroyed by fire. Then, as 
he gazed out over the same scene smiling 
so serenely before us to-day, he beheld his 
people driven almost mad with supersti- 
tious terror. In vain were the human 
sacrifices so freely offered. In vain the 
relieious feasts and dances. The hour had 
come and the little fleet of ships stealing so 
quietly up the coast was bringing the men 
who were to subdue the millions of the 
land. They say that at night even now, all 
up and down that avenue leading to the 
tree of the Noche Triste yonder, phantom 



I lo The Kiiiodoui of the 

hosts battle unceasingly, and in the moon- 
light Cortez can still be seen weeping 
over all he has lost— mournino; over the 
dead and dying around him. While be- 
low us, beneath the shadow of that o-reat 
cedar with its veil of silvery moss, the 
ghostly figure of the Atzec monarch lies 
prone in agony. His garments of many 
colored feathers torn and disordered. His 
crown of plumes crushed into nothingness, 
while he, like Boabdil-el-Chico, weeps even 
as a woman over that which he could not 
defend like a man. Truly these avenues 
of Chapultepec are ghost haunted. Misty 
nights bring out the restless spirit of 
Iturbide, while through the star-lit isles 
the shadowy figure of Maximilian passes 
with bowed head, and from his lips again 
are heard those last w^ords as he sank at 
Queretaro, "Oh man, man!" When the 
winds are out the sad voice oi Carlotta 



''White IVoman'' iii 

is wafted from terrace to terrace in long- 
peals of demoniacal laughter. Lightnings 
flashes over the half savage faces of Santa 
x'\nna and his merciless crew, while the 
rattle of thunder brings back the spirits 
of our own boys in blue over there on 
the field of Molino del Rey where they 
fell so bravely. All that, they say, can be 
seen and heard at night when the moon- 
liofht and stormlig-hts chase each other 
round the "Hill of the Grasshopper." But 
now as the full light of the noon-day sun 
strikes down upon Chapultepec, she is the 
center of a realm of peace and beauty, 
while around the old tree of the Atzec 
monarch a band ot dark-eyed, scarlet-robed 
Mexican children have joined hands and 
are dancinof in and out of its wavinor 
mosses to the sound of the mandolin. 
The balmy air is laden with the odor of 



1 1 2 TJic Kingdom of the 

the magnolia, so heavy, so sweet, that one's 
senses are wafted into skmiber, rendered 
deeper and more profound by the singing- 
of many birds and the gnrghng sound 
of falhng waters. 



■o 




Wh ite Woman . " 113 



CHAPTER XXV. 

I SHOULD warn all travelers who come 
to Mexico to bring letters of credit 
and not drafts, as it is almost impossible 
to have the latter cashed. No amount of 
identification seems to satisfy these bank- 
ers, who appear to imagine that the end and 
aim of the people from the States is to 
swindle them. 

It was our fortune, o-ood or bad as 
you please, to arrive just as an excursion 
from the north was departing, and we were 
furnished with much amusement at the 
many promises left behind, and by the 
general state of indignation caused by 
many actions new and strange to the in- 
habitants of this ancient city. They could 



114 ^^^^ Kingdom of the 

not imagine that even in the rush and 
roar of the vast City of Chicago, not only 
the promises made to them, but even the 
visit to their city would soon be forgotten 
utterly or remembered only as some thing 
afar off and dream like. On the occasion 
of that visit the contents of that grreat 
curiosity shop — the national pawn shop — 
were opened and dusted. It is amongst 
the most curious of the many places in 
the town. There every thing from a sauce- 
pan to a necklace of diamonds can be 
found. It is claimed that most of the 
jewels of the country are here in pawn, 
and when, on the occasion of the ball 
given at that time, the ladies of the city 
wished to appear in all their glory, they 
drove to the pawn shop on their way to 
the ball, and, leaving horses and carriages 
as pledges, were allowed the use of their 
jewels for that night only. Not having 



' ' White Worn an^ 115 

time to clean them, the effect on their 
fair arms and shoulders was in a short 
time startling. I do not consider the 
women of Mexico beautiful, and the man- 
ner in which they pile on the powder 
until their faces are deathly, is most un- 
pleasant to one from the north, while the 
ghastly effect is increased by the stare ot 
great black glassy eyes. However, I 
fancy their men must admire it or it would 
scarcely be done. I notice also that here 
the language of old Castile which in the 
mother country sounded so silvery and 
beautiful, is harsh and clattering, and when 
one is at all unwell, utterly unbearable. 
As you walk about \ou stumble now and 
then on a figure strangely like the celebrated 
"Mr. Guppy." Thin to gauntness, with 
sunken eyes and chsheveled hair, he leans 
with folded arms against some house cor- 
ner or cloor-post, while his eyes are fas- 



1 1 6 The Kingdom of the 

tened constantly upon some neighboring- 
window behind which you faintly discern 
the shadowy form of a woman. This is 
the Spanish mode of courtship, and is 
called " bearinof." It ©oes on for some 
weeks, after which, if he is accepted by 
the parents, he is admitted to the house 
and an interview with them, not with the 
adored one. He never sees her alone 
until he marries her. I was so deeply 
interested in one case yesterday that I 
inadvertently stepped upon a pulque skin, 
bursting it open and flooding the pavement 
with the disgusting liquid. Most demon- 
strative was the sorrow of the owner 
until I bought his silence, while my own 
disgust was equally intense as the odor 
clung to my shoes for days. That was 
the only time I ever attacked the national 
drink. 



White Womany 117 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

WE went this morning to visit the 
tomb of Juarez. Under a white 
marble canopy hes a full length figure of 
this slayer of Maximilian, and as you gaze 
upon the face, Indian in every line, you 
fully understand that having warned the 
Emperor that return meant death, this was 
a man to keep his word. The high cheek 
bones, long straight black hair, and broad 
nose, all go toward the make up of a 
face to be found any clay amongst our 
northern tribes. His daughters, whom we 
met at the legation, are strangely like 
him. If I remember rightly, they were 
educated in our country. One can not 
blame the Mexicans for resisting foreign 



1 1 8 The Kingdom of the 

force and rule, yet it is claimed here that 
the people were devoted to Maximilian 
and Carlotta — only those of Juarez' rank 
causino- all the trouble. We have met 
several times the tall sorrowful figure of 
the Empress Iturbide, another victim of 
the third Napoleon. I could not but re- 
member her as I watched in '91 an old 
and bowed figure, clothed in rusty mourn- 
ing, seated on an iron stool in the garden 
of the Tuilleries, while the eyes, all that 
remained of the once glorious beauty of 
Eugenie, gazed mournfully on the site of 
her former triumphs. She is not of suffi- 
cient consequence now for the French 
government to object to her presence. 

Out beyond the tomb of Juarez we 
came upon one of the old stone aqueducts 
that still brinor the blessinors of water to 
the people. There are several of these 



' ' White Woma7z . " 119 

structures all in perfect condition. They 
are not so lofty as those of Rome, but 
all terminate in beautiful moss-grown stone 
fountains, around whose basins you find a 
constant crowd of people, though I do not 
think that they can have any capacity for 
water, after all the pulque they drink — and 
they certainly never bathe. 



1 20 TJic Kingdom of the 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

ASIDE from a drive on the Alameda 
or to Chapultepec, you rarely use 
a carriage here. Tram cars of all classes 
run through most of the streets and far 
into the suburbs, to Guadalupe, to Tacu- 
baya, and many other points ; in fact, such 
is the condition of the streets, that you 
must use them if you would go at all. 

Starting one morning about nine o'clock, 
we found in the great square our minister 

and his wife. Monsieur and Madam M 

(now secretary of state), and some others 
(on invitation), and boarding a car for Tacu- 
baya, spent a most delightful day under 
the trees of the Baron and Escandone 



* * Wh ite Woman . " 121 

estates. They were truly beautiful places. 
The house of the former is of two stories,, 
and stretches at great length along a 
marble terrace, on whose steps and balus- 
trades stand urns filled with flowers, while 
through the vistas of the park the falling 
waters of many fountains make the air 
musical. The house itself is filled with 
all that wealth, possessed for generations, 
combined with good taste, can purchase. 
Here, a boudoir with dainty fittings of 
malachite ; there, a library whose shelves 
are crammed to the top. On the fly-leaf 
of the first book I picked up was written, 
"With the compliments of the author, 
Henry W. Longfellow." A room in which 
one might study and dream a life away, 
the world forgetting, with no regret that 
they were "by the world forgot." 

Down a long vista of hallway, through 



12 2 The Kingdom of the 

a lofty portal, the rays of light struck 
upon gilded frames and the rich warm 
tints of the many paintings — old masters 
and new — and as is usual in most large 
galleries, good, bad, and indifferent, though 
as a whole these were good, and were a 
■collection always impossible in any land 
where the law of primogeniture has never 
existed. (I am not certain that it exists 
there now, though it did not long since.) 
We spent several hours wandering over 
the interesting place, and having little or 
nothing to do with each other, each fol- 
lowing the bent of his or her own tastes, 
information and inclinations. It was all 
open, the family being in Europe, but as 
they were personal friends of our minister, 
we had the freedom of the house. 

I finally wandered into a deep bay of 
the library, evidently a favorite nook of 



' ' White JVouiaji . " 123 

some of the dead and gone owners. A 
small table and a large easy chair stood 
in the corner. Throuo-h the stained- 
glass windows the long rays of sunlight 
threw the shadows of waving leaves across 
the thorn-crowned face that Guido Reni 
painted. Silence and the soothing music 
of a fountain soon sent me nodding over 
my book. Do n't be shocked when I tell 
you it was Ouida's " Puck." I was sud- 
denly aroused by deep breathing and sniff- 
ing, and found myself under watch and 
guard of an immense bloodhound. I had 
the eood sense not to move, and for some 
moments man and beast stared straight 
into each other's eyes. It is claimed the 
old notion that the human eye can cow 
and subdue that of a beast is all nonsense, 
but I fully believe it, though I do not think 
it would save one's life. Still in this case 
it was but a moment ere the superb ani- 



124 '^^^f-^ Kino;doiii of the 

mal growlingly lowered his eyes and head, 
and at last settled on the floor near by, 
ever and anon castincr savao;e o-lances in 
my direction, but shifting them away at 
once on meeting mine. I did not, it is 
useless to say, attempt to escape. For- 
tunately the strong sunlight which poured 
into one of the windows, threw us both 
into bold relief, and caused one of the 
servants to come to my succor. 

Breakfast had been spread on the 
terrace. We had evidently drawn from 
the resources of the house, as the silver 
and glass, all of the most exquisite quality 
and workmanship, bore the family arms, 
and by their beauty added much to the 
enjoyment of the feast. 

Later, as we were gathered in the bowl- 
ing alley, we suddenly found that we had 



' ' White Woman . " 125 

as companions not one, but three immense 
bloodtiounds, and then it was explained 
that the people of these places keep them 
as guards against kidnappers. Even with 
such protection they are not always safe 
(in 1879), as was demonstrated not long 
since by the sudden disappearance oi one 
of the rich men of the city. He was al- 
most given up as dead when a little child 
asked the searchers if they were "looking 
for the man under the bed ; " there he 
was found, not under the bed, but under 
the floor, bound, gagged, and almost dead 
with starvation. I doubt if the city under 
Montezuma was half as dangerous a place 
of residence as during the late years. 
Now, 1890, it is far different, thanks to 
the introduction of northern life, steam, 
etc., with the many other improvements 
that always follow in their train. Yet I 
am o-lad I saw the land before all that 



126 The Kingdom of the 

happened. Strangers in those days were 
few and far between, and welcomed with 
open arms by the upper classes. Now 
they are numberless, and in consequence, 
the people have retired unto themselves. 
You see nothing of them unless especially 
presented. But all that has nothing to do 
with those bloodhounds that appeared 
at last to realize that we were friends, 
not foes. Two went to sleep, but my 
old guardian approached and laid his great 
head with its horrible fangs on my knee, 
while his expressive eyes seemed to ask 
my pardon for his late conduct. I granted 
it by a gentle caress, and he sealed the 
compact by an energetic wag of his tail. 
Is there any thing on earth more expres- 
sive than a dog's tail ? I certainly can 
never forget the intense watchfulness of 
that old o-uard as he stood over me in 
the library. Its expression was tremen- 



' ' Wk ite Woman . " 127 

dous. It was just as expressive in the 
bowling-alley as it whacked a friendly rata- 
plan on my thinly clad back. Shortly there- 
after he caused the very objectionable fat 
woman from Indiana to almost faint away 
as he dashed with a roar after the ball that 
had just left her hands. 

The sun was sinking fast before we 
moved to leave that abode of peace. As 
I stood on the long marble terrace and 
looked my last on its beauty, regret at 
parting was strong upon me. Surrounded 
by its high walls, it was so secluded from 
the world, so shut off from the rush and 
roar of the country, that I found there 
that quiet, that restful delight, which only 
comes now and then in life. I found it 
once afterward, in the gardens of the 
Taj, in far away India, and again I would 
have lingered on forever. 



128 The Kingdom of the 

But in the tropics night comes fast, and 
the way between Tacubaya and the city is 
not safe under her shadows. So we moved 
on, leaving this poem in white marble with 
the evening sunlight glistening on its leaves 
and fountains and lighting up the windows 
of its deserted rooms. It was a bit of 
Italy dropped by mistake on this western 
continent ; but, unlike Italy, in that we 
could not remain to enjoy it by moonlight. 
Indeed, I have no recollections of the beau- 
ties of Mexico under the light of the moon, 
unless it be a vista of silent street or de- 
serted plaza, or perhaps the outlines of the 
old cathedral just opposite my window. This 
is because you can not wander off there 
alone or even in couples after night falls. It 
is neither healthy nor safe, and I maintain 
that there is no joy in the moonlight or the 
silence of the night if one must be sur- 



"■White Woinany 129 

rounded by a crowd. I also noticed that 
amongst the people there was little or no love 
of music, no strollinor bands of sino-ers, such 
as one meets with all over Italy, and I 
thank God no mechanical pianos. Now and 
then you see the people dancing the fan- 
dango, and in the middle and upper classes 
hear the music of the Danza ; but for the 
masses life seems to hold no music, save 
such as is furnished them by the band on 
the Paseo, and across their watchful, mourn- 
ful faces you never see the shadow^ of a 
smile. 

I think the absence of a love for music 
and their ever-silent watchfulness must come 
from their Indian blood. Spain certainly 
was full of music. I remember much of it 
in Cuba ; but these masses do not in the 
least resemble the people of either of those 
countries ; but rather, as I have said before, 
the swarms of Egypt and Syria. Like them 



1 30 The Kingdom of the 

in dress, at least among the women, greatly 
like them in their silent watchfulness, pos- 
sessinof the same doe-trot movement, which 
they will keep up all day long, but which 
does not in the least resemble the stately 
stalk of the northern Indians. 

Apropos of mechanical pianos. One au- 
tumn, in Naples, at the Hotel Bristol, we 
were so tormented by their horrible clatter 
that in deep despair I endeavored to pur- 
chase silence. You can imagine the result. 
The "fraternity" at once formed a joint 
stock concern. I had no sooner boug-ht off 
one fiend than another would appear from 
around the corner. I did not discover their 
game until silence had been purchased three 
times. The fourth man looked familiar, and 
on closer inspection I found that he was the 
first of the gang, and had merely turned his 
old hat wrong side out in order to deceive 



' ' White Woman . " 131 

me, which he evidently felt sure of doing, 
as his self-composure was immense. Re- 
tiring in disgust, I summoned the waiter, 
and ordered him to bring a half-dozen "bad 
eggs," He retired, and in a few moments 
the head waiter appeared, and with vast 
dignity informed me that "this hotel does 
not keep that kind." Though convulsed 
with laughter, I managed to seize a pitcher 
full of water and to make for the balcony, 
outside of which the noise and clatter was 
momentarily growing louder and more tri- 
umphant. However, piano and man van- 
ished like the mists of morning as I raised 
my engine of war aloft. Quiet soon reigned 
supreme, but I never regained my standing 
with the head waiter after that order for 
" bad eggs." 



132 TJic Kingdom of tJie 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

EVENING brings a reception at the 
Legation, a cosmopolitan affair most 
certainly. As we enter we are greeted by 
our genial host and hostess, who present us 
to most of the Mexican 400 ; also to the 
English, French and American contingent. 
Those two dark-browed heavy-featured 
women at the piano are the daughters of 
the Juarez, next by their side a Spanish 
matron sits robed in yellow satin and black 
lace. Yonder are two American ladies, 
mother and daughter, whom I saw on the 
sacred Nile ; and with that English officer I 
passed a pleasant week in the Halls of the 
Alhambra. The orchestra is playing the 
waltz, "Auf Wiedersehen," its dreamy music 



' ' White Woman . " 133 

has proven too much for that young Ameri- 
can girl, who, though in the deepest mourn- 
ing and ahnost shrouded in crepe, is drifting 
around in the arms of a dark-eyed Spaniard. 

The fat woman from Hoosierdom is com- 
paring all and every one to those she 
knows on the banks of the Wabash, much 
to the credit of the latter. I hear her dis- 
cussing a church fair in Evansville as I pass 
her. She has nothing to do with me as she 
blames me for that affair of the bloodhound 
and ball. The wife of the Secretary of 
State, a beautiful blonde, and by the way 
an American, is gayly chatting with an Eng- 
lish doctor. Ah ! there are the strains of 
the " Danza." How quickly its music draws 
all into the mazes of the dance until the 
nations of the earth here commingled, forget 
for the nonce that they have been and may 
again be enemies. 



1 34 TJie Kingdom of the 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

WITH ordinary care Mexico is a safe 
place to visit. The altitude may 
trouble you some, but Jalapa and Orizaba 
on the outer rim of this basin are considered 
amongst the most healthy places on the 
globe, and are but a few hours off. I can 
testify to that of Orizaba. It is most charm- 
ing. The thermometer remains at about 
60 degrees the year round, and our roses 
bloom in great masses, tumbling over 
houses and walls in boundless profusion, 
while the air is forever full of that fresh, 
sweet odor, so prevalent in our spring 
months. If you like tarantulas they have 
them there. I was told that on the 
Sunday previous to our visit, one had 




Sacrificial Stone. 




Sacrificial Stone. 

(Side view.) 



' ' White Wo7nan . " 135 

jumped onto the keys of the organ. 
Orizaba is modern enough to be comfort- 
able. You will find nothing very ancient 
in the town ; in fact, there are very few 
relics of the Aztec even in the capital. The 
calendar is in the wall of the cathedral 
(since removed to the museum), and in one 
. court in the palace are to be found the 
remainder. Amongst the latter the famous 
Sacrificial Stone, from the Teocalli of the 
capital, the same upon which, amongst 
thousands of natives, many of the men of 
the conquest were otfered up. It is some 
twenty feet in diameter and four feet thick, 
with a basin in its center to hold the blood. 
It is entirely covered with Aztec carvings, 
and is of a marble hard as flint, and mottled 
green and black. It is really a work of 
beauty. Around about stand numerous 
gods and other images, all in stone. Pass- 
ing upward into the galleries, the first 



136 The Kingdom of thf. 

thing one sees is an immense painting of 
Maximilian, thrown on its side in a corner, 
and with several holes through the canvas. 
He must have been a very handsome man. 
Here he is pictured in full uniform, mounted 
on a white chargfer. The brow is hig-h and 
crowned by a mass of yellow hair, while a 
long golden beard covers his breast. Eyes 
of blue give a pleasant effect to the face. 
It is handsome but weak, not unlike that of 
"Unser Fritz," and I think that the charac- 
ters of the two men were much alike. It 
was certainly necessary that this man should 
receive the crown of martyrdom to avoid the 
utter oblivion of time, but I fancy could he 
have been allowed his choice, he would 
gladly have exchanged the fleeting glories 
of his earthly crown and his crown of mar- 
tyrdom for a peaceful, happy life in his 
beautiful palace of Miramar, with the blue 
Adriatic murmuring at its feet. When he 



''White Woman." 137 

fell, wounded to death at Oueretaro, the 
poor Indians who were present wept aloud, 
and rushing forward, wiped up every drop 
of blood. Even in his burial I think he was 
unfortunate, and if he could have spoken, 
would have preferred remaining here on 
the beautiful hills of Mexico, where God's 
sunlight and storm could pass over him, 
to being taken to the gloomy vaults of 
the Capuchins, where that sunlight never 
comes save in stray beams ; where every 
sarcophagus around is laden with the bronze 
images of death ; where no sound is ever 
heard save the droning voice of monks 
reciting the merits and titles of the royal 
dead after the names of nearly every one 
of whom, from Maria Theresa — broken- 
hearted over the loss of Silesia — to the 
late Prince Rudolph, you can write the 
word "unfortunate." 



TJie Kinodorn of the 



CHAPTER XXX. 

MEXICO possesses really a very fine 
picture gallery. It occupies several 
large rooms, and is for the most part, 
made up of good canvases gathered in 
the suppression of the monasteries. I 
remember two that particularly impressed 
me. One contained two figures, " Dante 
and Virofil " eazino- into the mouth of hell 
— the reflection therefrom casting a crimson 
glow over their wondering faces ; in the 
other, " Crazy Joan " wandering over her 
kingdom with the encoffined body of 
her husband Phillip Le Bell. The cortege 
has paused on some wild plain of old 
Castile, and the figure of the crazy queen 
stands over the coffin of her husband, 



' ' White Wo7nan . " 139 

while the bleak wind blows her long hair 
across her vacant, melancholy face ; the 
courtiers stand about regarding her with 
awe-stricken glances, but she is oblivious 
to all save her dead. The picture haunts 
one. I remember standing once in the 
vaults of the Cathedral of Grenada when 
it was hard to realize that my hands were 
resting- on the coffins of Ferdinand and the 
gentle Isabella, while just beyond stood 
the same coffin that is in this picture, and 
she who here watches it slept by its 
side. The scene comes back to me as I 
gaze now. I remember that in the treas- 
ury above were the crown and jewels that 
Isabella sold to help Columbus, and near 
by the sword of Boabdil el Chico, the last 
of the Moors. In my fancy I still hear 
the murmuring waters of the brooks of 
Grenada and the silver tones of the bell 
hung centuries ago in a tower of the 



140 TJic Kinodoin of the 

i\lhambra — hung- there by the Moors to 
regulate the irrigation of the valley ; but 
no, this sound is cracked and discordant 
and comes from those of Santa Domingo, 
the church of the Jesuits. We have just 
seen in the museum here the two bodies 
taken from her walls, the one a man, the 
other a woman, small and delicate, im- 
mured by those who worship the memory 
of Christ, the Compassionate. They had 
slowly starved to death. The horror of 
it all makes us shudder as we gaze at the 
twisted fio'ures and distorted faces, dear 
both of them to somebody once, and now 
an eternal reproach to a church guilty of 
barbarities greater than those of the Az- 
tecs. 



WJiite Woman y 141 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

MEXICO is full of churches — one in 
almost every square — and all more 
or less like the great cathedral, which, 
strange to say, in this one-time province 
of old Spain, is much more in the Italian 
style of architecture than the Spanish. It 
is grand, but it does not approach those 
of Seville, Toledo, or Burgos, but is very 
like that of Maria Maggiore in Rome. 
I fancy the occupation of the masses has 
chantred but little all these centuries. As 
we walked through a side street, pausing 
a moment at a low doorway through 
which our eyes had been attracted by a 
sudden gleam of color, we found a lot of 
men and women eneag-ed on their famous 



142 The Kingdom of the 

feather work — an art handed down to 
them by their Aztec ancestors. 

One of them showed me a small card 
on which he had worked a peacock perched 
on the limb of a tree, all made entirely of 
feathers. It was much more perfect than 
painting. Card after card was handed up 
until we were forced to. believe that they 
must be possessed of a copy of Audubon, 
as many of the birds were of other climes. 
Here was also their wonderful figfure work 
in clay. Groups of people and animals — 
beautiful all of it ; but, like so much else 
from other parts of the globe, it will not 
endure in our climate. I was much amused 
to notice some Americans haggling among 
themselves and with the dealer, over some 
second-hand work from Paris and which 
we could not convince them was not Mex- 
ican, all the while utterly ignoring the 
really beautiful native work. I noticed on 



" White Woman y 143 

a later visit that the feather work hacj lost 
much of its beauty, caused, I fancy, by the 
influx of strangers and the consequent 
greater demand. The natives knowing 
that they could sell all they made, no 
matter how poor the work, ceased to take 
any pains therewith. 



144 ^-^^^ Kingdom of the 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

ONE morning, passing with Bishop Riley 
through the sunht square of the great 
cathedral, we pause a moment to purchase 
a couple of the clarines, and are surprised 
to find that a circus has set up its canvas 
walls right under the doors of the sanctuary. 
On closer inspection, it is discovered that 
" Ben," the educated pig, and his friend, the 
dancing goose, have deserted the shades of 
Saratoga for brighter fortunes in this south- 
ern clime. I chanced, some weeks later, to 
be on a ship with this celebrated pair, when 
both were gloriously sea-sick. Giving them 
the go-by now, however, and disregarding 
the bombardments of the venders of parrots, 
paroquets, tortillas (cakes), pilgrim flowers. 



" White Womaji.'" 145 

gorgeous sombreros and serapes, pictures 
of the Virgin, wreaths of orange blossoms, 
etc., we pass onward for a look at the new 
church lately acquired by the bishop from the 
Catholics. He had had much to say about 
it, and seemed very proud of his purchase ; 
but alack, on arrival we find that his ene- 
mies have stolen the pipes of the organ. 
From there we visit Mrs. Hooker and her 
orphanage. What a time the poor woman 
has of it, to be sure ! No sooner settled in 
one place than through the power of the 
Roman Catholic Church she is bundled on, 
bag and baggage. Still, nothing discour- 
aged, she tries again. So it has been for 
years and will always be, I fancy, until her 
poor thin hands shall have given up the 
battle — until her tired ears shall hear the 
command, "Well done; enter into the joy 
of thy Lord." She is destined, however, 
to labor in this vineyard for years to come. 



1 46 The Kingdom of the 

I have not heard of her death, and I met 
her acjain in 1888, when she had much to 
say concerning the mistaken pohcy of send- 
ing clothes and other suppUes to this far off 
city. The cost of transportation being so 
immense, she is often forced to refuse the 
cases, their contents being of Httle or no 
value, and nearly always unsuitable to this 
climate. A little money goes a long way in 
her hands, but any thing else is more of a 
burden than a blessing. Speaking of the 
cost of transportation, the story is told of 
an American woman who came here to live 
shortly after this railway was opened.* De- 
siring a cooking stove, she ordered one 
from the north, the original cost being some- 
thing like $30, and the bill for transporta- 
tion nearly $180. We paid ^30 for extra 
luggage between here and El Paso on three 

* The Mexican Central. 



''White Woma7iy 147 

moderate sized trunks, though we held three 
first-class tickets. I have just learned ( 1 893) 
that Mrs. Hooker has passed away, but not 
until she had secured that desire of her 
heart, a building for her " orphan children," 
a place that the Church of Rome could not 
turn her out of. Her children are safe at 
last, and she rests from her labors. 



148 The Kingdom of the 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE dead are treated with scant cere- 
mony among the poor, as we discov- 
ered this morning. Hearing that a child, 
a Httle girl, daughter of our concierge, had 
died during the night, we raised enough 
money to buy a coffin ; but chancing to 
look from my window later on, I saw her 
borne away on a board, with a few paper 
flowers strewn over her and four common 
candles casting a sickly glare and much 
grease over the waxen figure. The father 
carried the board on his head, and many 
times stopped to gossip and laugh as he 
passed away down the street toward the 
shrine of Guadalupe, there to cast her in a 
rough pit, and returning, hold high revel 



' ' White Woman , " 149 

with his friends on the money we have 
given for the coffin. Undoubtedly, as we 
pass out to-night, he will shower blessings 
on our heads, not for what we have wished 
to do for the dead — he could never be made 
to understand that — but for the opportunity 
we have afforded him for getting drunk on 
pulque. But let us follow to Guadalupe. 
Out one of the broad avenues of the city 
he passes with his strange, sad burden ; 
now in the deep shadow of some old church, 
where the semi-darkness causes the candles 
to faintly illuminate the dead ; now in the 
broad glare of brilliant sunlight, showing up 
the tawdry decorations and robbing even 
death of its majesty ; again he pauses for 
half an hour before a pulque shop, while he 
drinks and chatters, his burden on a chair 
beside him, and toward it neither he nor the 
dozens near him elance, even for a moment. 
Meanwhile there has slowly approached 



I 50 The Kiiigdiwi of the 

through the crowd an old shaggy dog, 
which now sits on its haunches l^y the rude 
bier and closely regards the dead. As we 
draw near, he raises his eyes to ours, full 
of sadness, and I should say, if a dog could 
weep, full of tears. He remembers his 
frolics through the sunshine and shadows, 
and many a night's sleep with his head pil- 
lowed on the little form so silent before him 
now, and he is the only one who, remember- 
ing, regrets. The queer procession starts 
again ere long. The man by this time has 
an ill-smelling cigar between his teeth and 
so much pulque down his throat that his 
movements are unsteady, and I dread lest 
the burden on his head be cast into the orut- 
ter. The dog follows, and the stream of 
human life flows on past them, thinking 
little, caring less. Now a woman with a 
tray of greasy tortillas brushes by him ; 
now he is rudely ordered to halt, while a 



' ' White Woman . " 151 

gay cavalcade of horsemen gallops past. 
At last, leaving the street of the town, 
he joins in the vast crowd of pilgruns, 
all journeying toward the sacred shrine of 
Guadalupe, sacred since the Virgin showed 
herself there to Indian John. About three 
miles from the city, on one of the foot hills 
of the mountains, stands the cathedral, 
marking the spot, and behind and above 
it mounts the city of the dead, with its fan- 
tastic monuments. The church itselt is 
cathedral in size and richness, and is full 
of votive offerings like that of Notre Dame 
de la Garde at Marseilles. Here at all 
seasons of the year, like as unto Benares, 
come thousands on thousands of the people, 
and here they kneel in silent ranks, hours 
at a time. In the city of the dead rich 
tombs and monuments mark the sleepmg 
places of the wealthy — long rows of un- 
marked graves — those where the poor are 



152 The Kingdom of the 

cast in uncoffined. Near one of these the 
man has paused, and placing his burden on 
the ground, bends for a moment in — let us 
hope, if not prayer, at least remembrance. 
Then he departs swiftly, while the old clog 
comes slowly forward and lies down beside 
the dead. The afternoon shadows gfi'ow 
long-er and longer ; still he lies there. His 
mournful eyes gaze outward past the shrine 
and its countless worshipers ; past the long 
dusty highway, down which was so lately 
borne his dead companion ; past the city 
and her lakes and the groves of the Ala- 
meda, where he has played with the child 
in her short liie-time, to the point where the 
setting sun has turned the snowy cones of 
the great mountains into gold. Amidst all 
that glory is he looking for the spirit of his 
dead playmate ? The silent form before 
him seems almost touched into life by the 




o 



''White IVoniaji.'' 153 

benediction of departing day. Then the 
night falls suddenly. 

As we return homeward, sounds of bois- 
terous merriment greet our ears, and we see 
through the portals of the house a group of 
people across whose faces the flickering light 
of a fire casts grotesque shadows. Amongst 
them is the father of the dead child. With his 
companions he holds high carnival, because 
the Virgin has taken her unto herself. So 
he untwists the end of the well-filled pulque 
skin, which is enthroned on a table beside 
him, and allows each in turn to take long 
draughts of the nauseous liquid, after every 
one of which their faces become more and 
more besotted in expression. To such use 
is being put the money that we gave for her 
coffin. 



154 J^^^<^ Kingdom of the 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

1 REMEMBER being one day in the 
cemetery at Havana — not the Camp 
Santo, but the new cemetery out near tl>e 
Governor General's Palace, when up drove 
an elegant hearse, followed by a victoria, 
in which, behind liveried servants, sat two 
young men. After some service in the 
mortuary chapel the coffin was borne into 
the cemetery and we followed to see what 
would happen. Passing the portion set 
off for the rich, which was full of elegant 
monuments, they approached a long row of 
empty and newly-filled graves. One of the 
men taking a ticket from his pocket handed 
it to the grave diggers — two most repulsive- 
looking negroes. They nodded and pointed 



' ' White Woman . " 155 

to the nearest empty pit. Lifting off the 
coffin Hd there was exposed to view the form 
of a young woman beautifully dressed, her 
features covered by a lace veil. With scant 
ceremony the diggers seized the body by 
the head and feet and literally dropped it 
into the open grave, which not being long 
enough almost doubled it up. Then in- 
verting the coffin, they struck it a few 
blows on the bottom, as one does to 
empty a basket. One dropped a coarse 
blanket into the orrave and then the stone 
and rocks were shoveled on, while the 
elegantly dressed )Oung men carefully 
wiping the dust from the coffin, returned 
it to the hearse and drove off in their 
own perfectly appointed carriage. Graves 
there cost ^60.00 — " useless expense — when 
you are dead you are dead and will not 
know whether you are coffined or not — so 
why waste money?" 



156 T/ic Kino- do in of the 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

AS you gaze out over this busy city, 
surrounded by its wondrously beau- 
tiful valley and mountains, your thoughts 
must turn in retrospection over the cen- 
turies that have passed, and in their pas- 
sage brought her such hours of distress and 
triumph. You will realize that, as the great 
waves of time and change have rolled over 
Mexico, those from the northward have 
brought her prosperity, while those from 
the south and east, little but sorrow and 
distress. Do you laugh at such an asser- 
tion ? If so I think a deeper study of the 
history of Mexico will cause you to change 
your mind. From the northward in the 
forgotten ages came the Toltecs, savages, 



' ' WJiite Woman . " 157 

it is true, yet they brought with them 
many of the arts of the present day, 
gathered the people together in towns 
and cities, and taught them a measure of 
government. To that race we trace all the 
wonderful carvings to be found through- 
out the land from Texas to Panama. 
They were heathens and cannibals, but 
never the latter in the usual acceptation 
of that term. Cannibalism with them be- 
ing a religious function, only those sac- 
rificed to their gods were so consumed; 
and if such a term may be here used, 
it was clone decently and in order — as it 
were — a sort of Holy Communion. I do 
not uphold the practice even in heathens, 
but to me it is not so horrible as the 
awful tortures of the Inquisition. Indeed, 
there was rarely any torture about it, 
and it was a fate welcomed by many as 
a sure passport to their realms of bliss — 



158 The Kingdom of the 

while the Inquisition, not content with 
torturing the body, condemned the soul 
to eternal damnation. After the Toltecs 
came the Aztecs, still a race of savages, 
but very different savages from those we 
found in our northern land. Cortez dis- 
covered them living in well-ordered towns 
and comparatively well governed, espe- 
cially was this the case in the great city 
of Cholula where now the lonely pyramid 
looks down on a few wretched huts and 
miserable people. What possible good 
followed in his train? A small upper 
class may have become more civilized and 
enlightened, but the masses are to my 
mind but little better off now than in 
the days when the heathen gods claimed 
thousands for their altars. You may say that 
Cortez brought the true cross, introduced 
the religion of Jesus. Granted, and had 
it rested there, or been carried on in 



''White Woman y 159 

the manner ordained by the Nazarene, 
Mexico would to-day be three hundred 
years in advance of her present condi- 
tion, and the nations to the north and 
south of the Rio Grande would become 
one with no delay ; but it was not to be. 
The shadow of Torquemada spread rap- 
idly over this unhappy land, cursing place 
and people, and it was not until 18 15 
that the Inquisition was formally banished 
from the land, declared a dead institution. 



i6o The Kingdom of the 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

HOW different would have been the 
fate of this city and this land had 
Cortez, after suppressing the sacrifices, sup- 
pressed also the advocates of the Inquisi- 
tion. Of course he would have been 
burned for his o-ood intentions, and like 
Napoleon his ambition was centered in 
himself. He had little love for Church 
or State, save when they tended to his 
own advancement. He was followed by 
a long line of regents, emperors and 
presidents of the same pattern, until we 
come to the present incumbent, Porfirio 
Diaz, who really seems to have the wel- 
fare of the land at heart. Enter the 
palace below us there and gaze on their 



"■White Wo7na7ty i6i 

portraits — read their histories. Even in 
our day, what were Hidalgo, Santa Anna, 
Iturbide and Juarez? Surely, each and all 
of them, men who loved Mexico some, 
but themselves infinitely more ; and, there- 
fore, used their unfortunate country as a 
means whereby to gratify their own pleas- 
ures, and further their own personal glory. 
Maximilian would have done good to all, 
but he was not allowed even to try it. We 
have had some curses in our land — such 
as the burning of the witches and slavery. 
The former was wiped out very quickly 
and left no evil effects. The latter, while 
terrible in its results to the South, only 
affected a small portion of our land, while 
we, beine at all times alive to the awful 
character of the ulcer, were, therefore, on 
guard against it, and when the time came 
cut it out. Had it gone on, in the end 
its shadow would have equaled that of 



1 62 The Kingdom of the 

the Inquisition over Mexico; but, thank 
God, those shadows have vanished from 
both peoples. As I leaned over the para- 
pet, taking my farewell view of the an- 
cient city, the cracked bells of Santa 
Domingo sent up a jangling, useless re- 
monstrance aeainst the destruction of its 
order. The sounds of life were many, 
and echoed and re-echoed against the 
towers of the great cathedral opposite. 
Purple shadows gathered around Chapul- 
tepec and over lakes and mountains. 
Toward Guadalupe thousands of pilgrinis 
were moving, there to remain all niofht, 
and so be in time for the morrow's feast 
of the Virgin. Suddenly the golden light 
of the day went out as though a gust 
of wind had extinguished a great illumi- 
nation. Again, Popocatapetl and Ixtacci- 
huatl gleamed for an instant as a parting 
unto us; again, the snowy form of the 







CITY AND VALLEY OF M, SICO 




'j|:ico FRo^r a balloon. 



''White Woman:' i6 



o 



"white woman" blazed forth as though 
in a golden chamber, then all vanished 
into darkness — while from the world be- 
low, our ears were saluted by a wild, 
shrill whistle telling of the trains incoming 
from the north, bringing more and more 
and more each day, month and year the 
millions of a peaceful conquest, over 
whose reign, let us hope, the superstitions 
of the past can cast no shadow. 



164 The Kmgdoin of tJie 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

ALL that is very well from the stand- 
point of progress, etc. ; but from that 
of the dreamer and traveler I feel very 
much as I once heard a lady say as she 
gazed from Sparrow Hill on the oriental 
splendors of Moscow, " \Vell, I trust all this 
will soon pass away, but I am glad I have 
seen it before it was disturbed." So it was 
with Mexico. One is happy to have seen 
her picturesqueness before the influence of 
the north has changed it all, thereby reduc- 
ing it to the utterly uninteresting and com- 
mon-place characteristics of our own cities, 
each and all of them better places in which 
to live, but certainly possessing very little 
beauty. So if these notes should induce 



' ' Wh ite Woman . " 165 

any one to leave home for a few weeks and 
journey south to the old city, I shall be 
amply repaid for the writing thereof, and 
the traveler for having read them and fol- 
lowed in my footsteps, for on this same 
continent he will find a country containing 
people, towns, and cities almost as interest- 
ing as old Spain, and holding scenery far 
superior to any she can show. In fact, I 
rank it second only to the Himalayas. As 
regards the journey, if you do not suffer 
with sea-sickness, I should advise an en- 
trance at Vera Cruz, thereby saving many 
miles of useless railway journey. You will 
have enough, at very least ; but ii you 
must come by rail, there are several new 
lines in from Texas. From the City of 
Mexico you should go seaward as far as 
Orizaba, that ride being one of the grand- 
est on the globe. When you finally start 
northward, you will leave via El Paso, or 



1 66 The Kingdom of the 

over Eagle Pass, as your destination will 
decide. Mexico is chansfino:, it is true, but 
it will be several generations before she 
ceases to be of interest. I love personal 
liberty too much ever to travel on a set 
plan ; but for those who feel otherwise, 
those parties of "Raymond" offer a rea- 
sonable and most comfortable method of 
seeing Mexico. Traveling with their own 
train complete, they move when and how 
they please, and for ladies who must go 
alone, or not at all, offer excellent oppor- 
tunities for so doing. I have watched many 
of them, and I know that the attention and 
service is excellent. Not knowing any of 
the managers of the said company — in fact, 
never having even seen them — I am getting 
nothing for this advertisement, and only 
offer it for the benefit of those who wish 
strange countries for to see, and yet hesi- 
tate to go because they have none to go 



' ' White Woman . " 167 

with them. I think, on trying it, they will 
find that they receive the best of care, 
f'-om the moment they enter on the tour 
until it is over— all save the memories, 
which can never be "over," which will be 
a joy forever. 



1 68 TJie Kingdom of the 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

WE are having a picnic to-day — it 
being the 22nd of February. In 
one of the TivoH Gardens, outside the 
city, all the Americans, English and so- 
ciety people of the town have gathered. 
At the banquet our minister makes all 
the necessary and proper remarks about 
the father of his country, and is answered 
by a Spaniard in the language of old 
Castile. We are assured this "answer" 
is all that it should be, but it might be 
the Book of Genesis or the ten com- 
mandments for all we know or care. Be- 
ing short of champagne glasses, I am 
drinking out of the gourd of a " Grana- 
dilla," and am not sorry, as it holds much 



"■White Womanr 169 

more. However, soon the entrancing music 
of the Danza brings all to their feet, and 
we glide through the mazes of that most 
fascinating dance. As its strains die away 
we turn from one more day of pleasure 
in this city of the south, and it is our 
last, for to-morrow the train will bear us 
northward, toward enlightenment and pro- 
gress, toward the rush and roar and un- 
rest of our own dear land. Dear ? Yes, 
most certainly, for we would not live else- 
where, would not hold allegiance to any 
other banner than our starry one ; but I 
must acknowledge that the happiest, the 
most complete days, months and years of 
my life have been passed in foreign lands. 
You say that ours will "possess all that 
the rest of the world does in a thousand 
years." Perhaps so; but we will not be 
here to enjoy it, and I doubt whether 
the view from the battlements of Heaven 



1 70 The Kmgdom of the 

will be either interesting or profitable, so 
I maintain that from a traveler's stand- 
point, after having once seen our country, 
there is little to tempt one to cover its 
vast reaches again. Other lands possess 
as grand and grander scenery, while the 
voyager has within easy reach all the in- 
exhaustible resources of art and music, of 
history and antiquity. He need never 
waste a moment of his time, nor wear 
•his life out in weary, hot journeys. Those 
who have suffered in the crossing of our 
continent iii summer will fully understand 
what I mean. 

There is one of these railway journeys 
before us now. It will take us three 
nights and two days to reach El Paso, 
though but 1 100 miles away. However, 
one is never in a hurry in the south. 



' ' White Woman . " 171 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

THE eating houses on the Mexican Cen- 
tral are at this time (1889) something 
fearful. So we lay in a stock of provisions 
to last until the Rio Grande is passed. The 
train for the north is crowded, and our car 
contains the interesting and uninteresting 
lot usually to he found in traveling. In the 
drawing-room an English party has settled 
Itself — two or three bright-faced girls and 
an elderly man, evidently the father ; his 
only objection to the journey being the de- 
privation of his "morning tub." They are 
pleasant people, and one enjoys talking to 
them. En route to India, they look forward 
with great anticipations to California, the 
Yosemite, etc. One can easily see that 



172 The Kingdom of the 

the combined wonders of the world, nat- 
ural and otherwise, would scarce fulfill 
these anticipations. The center of the car 
is occupied by a minister, his wife, and 
four of the worst children it has ever 
been my misfortune to meet with. The 
wife, a pale, little, worn-out women, ex- 
pends all her energies in keeping them from 
"torturing father," who sits alone in his sec- 
tion, deeply engaged in the composition of 
sermons which shall astonish the world and 
hand his name down to posterity ; that said 
world does not already worship at his shrine 
is evidently the " fault of its own blindness," 
Thin to cadaverousness, dressed in orthodox 
black, his sunken eyes expressing all that 
intense egotism so common to his order — all 
the utter intoleration of those who dare to 
differ with him — writing, writing, and mut- 
tering to himself, while ever and anon his 
claw-like hands wave in oresticulation as he 



"■White Woman. '' 173 

addresses some vast, imaginary audience. 
Utterly absorbed in self, he never turns 
thought or glance toward the assistance of 
his poor worn-out wife, though she appears 
almost ready to faint in her battle with their 
children. She never raises her voice in 
remonstrance, for "Have ye not heard the 
words of Paul, ' Oh let the women keep si- 
lence, all.' " And silent she will be until 
the greater silence comes down upon her — 
until the greater rest with its "peace, be 
still" spreads its mantle of quiet over weary 
heart and brain. There are heroines whose 
names are never written save on God's roll 
of honor. There are also men who would 
still burn witches with delight if they dared 
to do so. 



1 74 The Kingdom of the 



CHAPTER XL. 

EN ROUTE. 

WE do not leave the train at Quere- 
taro. There is nothing of interest 
there save the hill upon which Maximilian 
was murdered, and that we see from the 
train. At Aguas Calientes the people are 
bathing in thousands in the naturally warm 
water as it flows through the ditches. It is 
the first time I have seen them show the 
slightest disposition to approach water of 
any sort. How wretched and degraded 
they appear as they squat in long rows on 
the banks or paddle around in the stream, 
and how do they ever manage to get back 
into those heaps of vermin-ladened rags 
that lie around ? They seem to be able to 



' ' White Woman . " 175 

live on nothing. If happy enough to pos- 
sess a deformed child, who can be made to 
beg, the entire family, retiring from work, 
lives on the alms it receives, which must be 
little enough, even now with every train 
bringing hundreds of tourists into the land. 
To give to all these beggars would impover- 
ish a Rothschild. A group near, four most 
wretched, evil-looking beings, is composed 
of a perfectly healthy and most villainous- 
looking man, a woman, and a grown son, 
quite their equal in degradation, while the 
bread winner is a wretchedly deformed little 
girl, who stands with outstretched palms 
before them. She seems to be blind, 
though her splendid eyes are marred in 
no way, and she also possesses every other 
ill that flesh is heir to. One can not help 
giving her something, though it is evident 
she will profit nothing while surrounded by 
such harpies. In all the thousand miles 



1 76 The Kin^do7u of tJic 

between the capital and the Rio Grande, the 
way is almost lined with such sights. There 
are millions of these wretches, so I would beg 
of those who favor our annexation of Mexico 
to come down and see for themselves before 
this step is taken ; then perhaps they may 
pause and ask, "What will we do with 
these?" The land is so incrusted with 
poverty, vice, and wretchedness, that a hun- 
dred Niagaras must be turned over it before 
any sane man would care to annex such an 
ulcer. The same holds true of Cuba. A 
grand climate, a rich and beautiful island, 
a vile people, possessing all the degradation 
and disease that man has ever heard of. 



White Woman." 177 



CHAPTER XLI. 

ZACATECAS. 

THIS is the highest point in Mexico ; 
over 8,000 feet. We feel this altitude 
and the desire to get away is almost 
unbearable. Nor is it lessened by the 
kindly advice of a native who sits at 
breakfast with us. The hotel is an aban- 
doned monastery, dark and cold. Cold— 
so penetrating that it seems to chill ones 
life blood — creeps down the spine with 
the hand of death. The sun pours bril- 
liantly down and over all ; but it is a 
cruel kind of light that holds neither life 
nor warmth. Seated at breakfast in the 
semi-gloom of the old refectory we are 
entertained by said native, who enlarges 



1/8 TJie Ki7igdom of the 

with apparent glee upon the ''generally 
fatal effects of the climate here upon 
foreigners." He tells us that we may 
feel apparently well and yet be on the 
verge of a collapse — that it always strikes 
suddenly and in the shape of a chill down 
the spine. (We have each and all had 
chills down the spine ever since we en- 
tered the town.) We look at one another 
with silent requests to "break it gently 
to those at home and not to bother about 
taking the body back." Two of us rush 
off in wild agony, and after seizing a 
donkey and mounting into the panniers, 
which hang on either side of his shaggy 
body, insist upon a visit to the church 
whose cross gleams high above us. The 
only one left behind appears on a bal- 
cony over our heads, and suggests that if 
the present altitude has scared us into 
fits that of the church will surely finish 



' ' White Woman . " 179 

matters — all of which has no effect, and 
we start off. The lady of the ride is 
somewhat heavy while I am light, so the 
donkey is now and then disconcerted by 
finding one pannier between his legs while 
the other has mounted his back. My 
view is from the latter point superb, while 
her power of locomotion in the former 
position materially assists the donkey in 
the ascent. I think the beast selects 
every rock of any size and insists upon 
crossing it with the intention, I fancy, 
of scraping off his "steerage passenger." 
He does not mind me in the least, and 
in fact, I fancy, thinks me, as has 
often been the case, somewhat ornamental. 
Ever and anon he pauses over some im- 
mense chasm and wildly shakes himself. 
At such moments I can see a pair of 
" walking shoes " describing geometries, 
angles and circles beneath me, but the 



i8o The Kmgdom of the 

owner thereof, being- of a pugnacious dis- 
position, holds on tightly, and in such form 
we are finally deposited before the shrine 
of the Virgin. I doubt if that saintly per- 
sonage ever had pilgrims arrive in like 
fashion before. 

The view is grand but very barren. 
Vast stretches of arid plains with encir- 
cling chains of purple mountains ; little 
or no vegetation of any sort — all seems 
lurid and desolate. So we hasten down- 
ward, deserting the donkey for the more 
comfortable, if not surer, method of walk- 
ing — constant practice enabling him to get 
his four leo-s down the rocks better and 
faster than we can our four. In order, 
therefore, not to undergo the ignominy of 
walking into town, I secure the beast, upon 
which we finally mount again, not as be- 
fore in the panniers, but far back — near his 



* ' White Woman . " 1 8 1 

tail — to which, I am ashamed to say, we 
do not hesitate, when necessity requires, 
to chng wildly. As we pass down- 
ward we come suddenly upon a drove of 
wretched, dirty men, scarcely clad at all, 
and driven along like swine. They are 
prisoners returning from their day's work. 
There can certainly be no after punish- 
ment for wretches like these. Hell itself 
can show no more ghastly-looking faces than 
theirs as they stumble along. Their bare 
shoulders receive blow after blow from the 
keepers, who would not treat their beasts 
as they treat these men, " made in the 
image of the Creator." Nearing the 
prison each and all are searched as they 
pass within, in order to see that they have 
stolen none of the precious metal over 
which they have labored like dogs. What 
could they do with it ? It would be 
seized at once and all they would get 



1 82 The Kmgdom of the 

would be added blows. A man had much 
better be dead than cast into a Mexican 
prison. He rarely comes out alive, and 
an order of transportation from one prison 
to another means " death on the way." 
The cruelties in these places are only 
equaled in Turkey or Persia. 

It is hard to feel that you are abso- 
lutely helpless to offer any aid or comfort 
to so much misery ; but even as we look 
the keeper turns on us with a snarl like 
a wolf, and I doubt not we would scarcely 
fancy what is said could we understand it. 

Our dreams at night are cursed by 
visions of all this wretchedness, inter- 
mingled with sudden attacks on our own 
health by ghastly, skeleton -like figures, 
named fever and chills. So it is with 
no regret that we start for the station 



' ' Wh ite Woman . " 183 

the following morning. As we do not 
stop at Chihuahua, this is our last point 
in Old Mexico. We do not get off with- 
out one more example of man's cruelty — 
not to fellowmen this time, but to dumb 
beasts. The great silver mines of the 
Rothschilds are here, and when the ore 
is ofotten out and well covered with chemi- 
cals they turn old broken down animals 
thereon to tramp out the metal. The 
chemicals in the end eat away their hoofs 
and the poor beasts are turned into the 
desert to starve. 

As you travel from end to end of this 
land so richly endowed by the hand of 
a bounteous nature or a great Creator, 
you are constantly struck with its inex- 
haustible resources, and dream often of 
what its future under an honest rule and 
different religion might be. The moment 



184 TJic Kingdom of the 

we leave the Terra Calientes, which, so 
far as I can judge, produce magnificent 
crops of yellow fever on their barren 
sands — that and nothing but that — and 
enter the provinces of Cordova and Ori- 
zaba — we have around us vast sugar 
and coffee plantations, equal, if not su- 
perior, to those of Cuba, and a climate 
unsurpassed in all the world. Here alone 
an immense population could be supported 
where is now but sparse settlements. The 
water powers are fine, the fruits are de- 
licious, the flowers beautiful. The air at 
Orizaba is like wine, and one could almost 
desire to live on there forever. Passinor 
upward to the great tableland you may 
travel for fifteen hundred miles to the 
northward and a thousand miles to the 
southward and be at all times within 
sight of mountains, beautiful to look upon, 
and rich with untold and inexhastible 



' ' White Woman . " 185 

wealth — filling the soul of the painter 

with deep satisfaction that they are so 

beautiful and with envy that his brush 

can do that beauty no justice ; while 

to him who searches for the treasures 

of these hills dreams equal to i\laddin's 

may be fulfilled. There are enough of 

riches here to run the world, and there 

is misery and poverty enough around one 

to damn those who are the cause thereof 

forever. The government of Mexico is 

struggling hard and with much success 

to counteract the effect of three hundred 

years of misrule, by a power that has 

not yet thrown up the game. That the 

victory must in the end perch on the 

banners of freedom, progress and justice 

none can doubt — this being the 19th and 

not the 1 6th century. All along the route 

to the north from the capital, hordes of 

miners throng each station, and a more 



1 86 The Kmgdom of the 

terrible lookinsf lot it would be hard to 
find — clothed in tattered and filthy sack- 
ing, flesh scarred, seamed and calloused 
with eternal exposure to violent changes 
of temperature, faces sodden by a life- 
time of hunofer, hard work and wretched- 
ness. They look more animal than human, 
and their lack-luster eyes gaze upon the 
traveler from another land with absolutely 
no expression ; nor can he bring a gleam of 
lipfht into their faces unless he shows a little 
money. Then the swift, lurking, stealthy 
side orlance of these half savages convinces 
him that it is well the sun shines and 
he is not alone with them. Aside from 
that glance they pay no attention to one 
who is so far apart from their lives that 
he can have absolutely nothing in com- 
mon with them. If they could rob him 
— well and good. They would thank the 
blessed Virgin for the privilege. As they 



''IVhite Woman.'''' 187 

can not, he may go his way. I doubt 
if they could be convinced that their 
condition could be bettered. Look at that 
lot yonder — thirty or more — ^just in from 
some mine in the distant mountains, fifty 
miles away. Are they human ? All down 
in' the dirt of the road together, like so 
many swine, most of them asleep. They 
will be driven back shortly, only to come 
again with ore for those who already 
have millions. How different from the 
hardy, healthy faces we meet with amongst 
our mining population, where clear eyes and 
cheerful voices greet us so pleasantly. And 
yet we as a nation are, in the estimation of 
these poor wretches, " heretics, and there- 
fore damned;" whilst they have lived for 
centuries under the benio^n and enlio-hten- 
ing influences of " Holy Church ! " If I 
have spoken too strongly about that same 
" Holy Church," it is for the very reason 



1 88 The Kingdom of ^ the 

that I know how grand she can be and 
could have been ; so I find less excuse for 
her, in that by her intoleration of all other 
sects, and by her inquisition, she has kept 
poor Mexico and many other lands and peo- 
ples so long in the blackness of midnight ! 



White Woman r 189 



CHAPTER XLII. 

ONE bright, sunny day in old Spain, 
I passed in rambling with my guide, 
one Leonard by name — if you go to Ma- 
drid, ask for him — over the ancient city 
of Avila ; it stands on the barren plains 
of the province of that name to the north 
of the capital, and is a perfect specimen 
of a feudal city. Great walls, broken in 
many places by high towers, encircle the 
narrow, shady streets, where I paused, ever 
and anon, to gaze up at some richly 
carved portal — telling of the grandeur, now 
long since passed away — or stood in the 
shadow of some doorway as a procession, 
in the still unforgotten glory of the middle 
ages, wound its way from the great 



I go The Kifigdom of the 

cathedral to some church or shrine be- 
yond the walls. There were crosses of 
gold held high in air, which caught the 
gleam of the sun and flashed bright spots 
of liorht over the dark walls of the old 
palaces. Black-robed priests and white- 
robed acolytes, bearing painted banners 
and shaking out clouds of incense, fol- 
lowed reverently the holy symbols. At 
the head of all walked one holdingr hieh 
aloft the "blessed sacrament." Then I 
knew that some soul was passing to its 
maker — that the priests of the " Holy 
Church " were on their way to administer 
her last rites. As they moved along the 
people knelt in reverence, and the noise 
and bustle of the old town sank into 
silence. Following in their wake I passed 
under one of the great gates, its loop- 
holes frowning, its portcullis still in place, 
out onto the desolate plains beyond, which 



' ' White Woman ." 191 

stretched away in all directions, barren 
and treeless, with nothing to break their 
dead level save long lines of stone walls, 
flat-roofed villages or ruined towers. The 
"procession of the dying" turned to the 
right, but my guide kept straight onward 
down the dusty highway, until finally in 
the shaded court of an old monastery I 
found myself gazing upon an unpreten- 
tious tomb, while at the name inscribed 
thereon, " Torquemada," I started as 
though a cobra had suddenly reared its 
head. Here then rested — if his body can 
ever rest — he who has cursed so many 
millions and been the direct cause of the 
downfall of so many nations ; for, just so 
certainly as they, listening to his teach- 
ings, followed them, their day of glory and 
progress passed away. Look at Spain in 
1492, Ferdinand and Isabella had at last 
conquered the Moors, and soon the land 



192 The Kiiiodoni of the 

would have, been rid of the Infidels. All 
the future was golden with glorious prom- 
ise, when into the royal tent at Grenada 
crept the black-robed figure of a monk 
— and from that hour the glory of Spain 
steadily but surely declined. Look at the 
panorama of decay as it slowly unrolls 
itself athwart the pages of the centuries. 
See the greatness and the glitter of the 
armies of the nation as they pass under 
the "Puerto del Sol" and enter the court 
of the myrtles ; how triumphant and full 
of promise sounds the music of the many 
trumpets. Long is the reign of Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella, but even upon it the 
smirches of decay appear. Then comes the 
reign of crazy Joan and Philip the Handsome. 
The realm is priest-ridden. Where in the 
days of the Moors all the arts and sciences 
prevailed, now is sloth and silence and 
decay, while the auto da fe blackens the 



''White Wo77iany 193 

land with its cinders. Charles the Fifth 
meets with defeat in the lowlands and 
abdicates his crown from very weariness. 
Then an evil face, thin and ghastly, with 
narrow forehead and sinister eyes, sur- 
mounting a crooked figure — clothed in 
rusty black, comes stalking by, and you 
know you are in the presence of the 
terrible Philip. He has lost his German 
Empire— Mary of England is dead, and the 
Armada scattered. He has murdered his 
innocent son and heir, Don Carlos, but 
he has builded the Escorial to the memory 
of Holy St. Lawrence, which act of piety 
his priests assure him will surely save his 
soul, if he will offer up the souls and 
bodies of the countless heretics, which so 
infest the land, and which even the terrors 
of the Inquisition can not conquer. There 
is a picture in Madrid which shows him so 



1 94 The Kingdom of tJie 

engaged — it is a terrible thing. Now the 
scene changes to those small, dark rooms 
just off the high altar in the Escorial. 
The great church glitters with gold and 
precious stones. Over all, the light of 
thousands of candles sheds its mellow 
rays ; but nothing can bring light or hope 
to the mind of the dying king. Here, 
where he has "ruled the world with three 
inches of paper," he is paying his debt to 
nature and an outraged God, and here he 
passes away, tortured with fear and doubt, 
shuddering at his past, with no hope as 
to his future, and all through the work 
started by the monk, who sleeps so 
quietly in the old convent at Avila. To- 
day Spain is just starting onward once 
more; for, as she suffered the most, so 
she is the last to recover. So it was in 
France, in Germany, in Italy, in Mexico. 
In fact, wherever the Inquisition held 



' ' While WojJiaji . " 195 

sway, and not until her yoke was broken 
forever did the angel of peace and pro- 
gress turn its face toward them. Look at 
the difference in England and our own 
land where the Inquisition never obtained 
a footinof. The tortures in England were 
fearful, but the Inquisition never obtained 
a footing there. As I stood by Torque- 
mada's grave that day, in Avila, I hor- 
rified a Frenchman by the assertion that 
this monk had influenced to a much 
greater degree than Napoleon the history 
and the peoples of the world. The latter 
was a orreat general, but, like all whose 
ambition is centered in and for themselves, 
his work was not far reaching nor en- 
during ; and I can not see that the world 
is any better or worse for his having 
lived. But Torquemada has stretched his 
skeleton hands until their shadow has 
covered most of the known world, and 



196 The Kingdom of the 

lasted undiminished through centuries, 
changing the fate of nations, ahnost al- 
terinor the face of nature — cursingr ever 
and always. And what, I wonder, was 
his greeting when he came face to face 
with Him whose message to saint and 
sinner was "Peace be unto you?" 



White Wo7nan." ic^^j 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

^^TILL, when you consider the vast 
^^ good done by the Church of Rome, 
you are ready to forgive much in it that 
is bad. No other denomination has sent 
forth such hosts of missionaries, such ar- 
mies of nurses for the sick and dying, 
as that of Rome ; and the good that has 
been done can not be estimated by the 
gold of the earth. So where a govern- 
ment, hke ours or that of England, forces 
that church to confine herself to matters 
spiritual, great good and nothing but 
good is the result. It is only when she 
is possessed of temporal power that such 
abuses as have cursed Mexico have crept 
in. Opposed by the government the In- 



198 The Kingdom of the 

quisition itself could not have existed. 
Even now when it has lone since sfiven 
up the ghost, it has left a heritage of 
ignorant priesthood to curse these people. 
Mexico had more than a century the 
start of the north, yet where is she to- 
day in comparison ? And who has cowed 
her people down, and kept them down, 
save a priesthood, knowing that an en- 
lightenment of the masses meant an end 
to their power? Therefore they threw 
the weight of that power against poor 
Maximilian and Carlotta ranged on the 
side of progress. If there were any signs 
of such progress for the people in 1879, 
I failed to see it. The upper classes 
were rich and cultivated, but the middle 
and lower were like the masses in Sicily, 
but of a lower grade ; for not even in 
that most degraded portion of Italy does 
one see thousands on thousands clothed 



" White Wo77ta7ty 199 

in nothing save wretched rags of coffee 
sacking, while in some of the sugar 
plantations they are not clothed at all. 
Every vestige of thought and feeling 
seems to have vanished long ago from 
their faces, so that it is almost impos- 
sible as one looks at them to imapfine 
that they are human like ourselves. Is 
it so, indeed? Are they men or animals? 
Could they ever love any one or ever 
long for the absent ? Can their besotted, 
brutish faces ever show gleams of reason? 
Are they one whit more enlightened or 
advanced than the Aztecs? Those were 
cannibals, these are murderers and thieves. 
Our own land holds none such; yet we 
are on the same continent. Who then is 
to blame? 



200 TJie Kingdom of the 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

CHIHUAHUA is passed at sunset, 
but with no desire on our part to 
stop over. As the mornino- breaks, look- 
ing from my window I see a great gulch 
at the bottom of which flows a sluo-aish 
stream, the Rio Grande, almost empty, 
as this is the dry season. We are still 
in Mexico, but across the gully with its 
willows and its mud, a wild-looking figure 
in leather clothing and broad-brimmed hat 
dashes shoutingly along. It is a cow-boy. 
That is our own dear land. The air seems 
to grow clearer and purer with the knowl- 
edge. We have reached the borders of 
a promised land, where each and all are 
as they make themselves. 



' ' J4'7i ite Woman . " 201 

The very vegetation of the earth seems 
changed. Gone are the cacti plants and 
the ghstening magnoHas, while vast masses 
of feathery chaparral spread away like an 
ocean of delicate green, until their waves 
break at the base of Sierra Blanca, glowing 
pink in the morning light to the east- 
ward. The distant air has that intensely 
clear, quivering appearance that one al- 
ways associates with the wide freedom of 
our western plains, and seems full of life 
and health, not ladened with sickness and 
death, while the skies are of a brip-ht. 
rain-washed cheerfulness. Over ihere, all 
is life, all is progress. While here around 
us, in this old town of Juarez, life and 
hope have long since passed away. Down 
her narrow, dusty streets you see the 
slumbering forms of her people in many 
doorways and corners. Will they ever 
awaken, or will they not rather slumber 



202 TJie Kingdom of the 

on and on until they gradually sink into 
and become part of the very earth itself; 
while above them, burying them deeper 
and deeper as the ages pass, sweeps the 
tide of a new life — the manners and cus- 
toms of a new people? Then these will 
be forgotten utterly, or faintly remem- 
bered as some shadowy tradition of the 
long ago. Then will the curse of super- 
stition be removed forever from our fair 
western continent. Then Mexico will be 
ours, heart and soul. Now, you might 
as well endeavor to mate the wild, free 
broncho of our northern plains with some 
skulking jackal of these yellow mountains, 
as to form a union between our people 
and these hordes to the southward. 



White Woman y 203 



CHAPTER XLV. 

AS much as we have enjoyed the tour, 
it is with a feeHng of intense rehef that 
we leave the train at Juarez, and smihngly 
submit to the cusiioms inspection. We 
would certainly not have grumbled at any 
tax placed upon us so long as it came 
from an American. It is strange that a 
narrow river can separate two such differ- 
ent peoples, wide apart as the poles in 
manners, with centuries between them as 
to customs, yet within rifle shot of each 
other. As we start across the stream, the 
town of Juarez is spread out around us, 
white, hot and silent. A few wretched 
dogs, skulking wolf-like along, a poor 
donkey, pulque ladened, whose owner 
gives us our last touch of Spanish in a 



204 TJic Kinodom oj thr 

cataract of oaths, as he showers blows 
upon the patient Httle beast. We are 
strongly tempted to get out, and, seizing 
the latter, turn him loose on the other 
side, where he can forever kick up his 
heels and roll in freedom with no end 
of " elbow room." 

Yonder, into the gates of the prison 
pass some wretched beings, who shrink 
away as they near the brutal-looking 
keeper, knowing that his word means 
life or death to them ; though I doubt 
not the latter would be preferred, were 
it to come quickly, to the lingering tor- 
tures of the former in a Mexican jail. 
A priest in greasy-black soutane and 
long, shovel-shaped hat, has just come 
from that house of m.ourning and now^ 
stands in close conversation with — surely 
— yes — 

" RUMPLESTILTSKIN," 



" White Woman y 205 

a dwarf, saffron-colored, with evil eyes, 
dressed in rusty-black velveteen embroid- 
ered in much tawdry gilt and many beads. 
From his belt protrude the handles of 
three or four pistols and knives, while 
on his head a sombrero, gorgeous with 
cords and a feather and enormous in size, 
tilts over his leering, hypocritical face. 
With one last glance we pass onward, 
receiving a parting salute from the sen- 
tinel at the bridore as he murmurs "adios," 
and, landine on the other side, have our 
ears split asunder by a voice whose 
equal I have never heard. It comes 
from a mouth of gigantic proportions, 
behind which roll in a black face, two 
laughing eyes, "Grand Central Hotel! 
Dis way for de omnibus ; plenty of time 
for dinner. I don car whar you's going." 
You have no notion unless you have 
taken such a tour what a relief that •nicr- 



2o6 The Kingdom of the 

ger was to us, for we had, without be- 
ing fully conscious thereof, been upon a 
constant strain of mind and body. I have 
experienced the same feeling in Russia, 
but never elsewhere. 

Behind us all is asleep and has been 
asleep these centuries, while El Paso is 
a wide-awake, cow-boy town, with a boom 
on, where one must move quickly or get 
shot. 

Having some hours to spare before 
the trains separate our party, we spend 
it in loafing around this western "city," 
gazing in at saloon doors and barber 
shops with as much interest as we did 
into the cathedral of the capital, and eat- 
ing with great relish the tough steak and 
soda biscuits of the hotel, washed down 



''White Woman y 207 

by the vilest coffee imaginable ; but every 
thing pleased. 

Here we part, after many weeks of 
pure delight, all the ills forgotten, all the 
joys remembered. Some go to the west- 
ward, while I turn eastward toward the point 
where Sierra Blanca seems to block the way. 
As my train moves onward it approaches 
the river. ''In the purple mists of even- 
in Sf " I see across its willows and sluo-- 
gish current low, square houses, on whose 
flat roofs stand some figures with hands 
shading their eyes from the sunlight as 
they gaze intently westward, "toward 
the region of the sunset — toward the land 
of the hereafter" — watching, hoping and 
praying for the 

"Coming of MontezUxMA." 




017 505 346 3 



